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

Prohibition of smoking in enclosed public places in England (thus completing cover of the entire UK)

A Northern Ireland Executive formed under the leadership of Ian Paisley (DUP) and Martin McGuinness (Sinn Fein)

Extension of Congestion Charge zone for London, westwards

Further enlargement of the European Union to include Bulgaria and Romania

UK postage rates start to be measured by size as well as by weight

80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II

Prohibition of smoking in enclosed public places in Scotland

Welsh Assembly Building opened by the Queen

Same-sex civil partnerships begin - famously, on this day, between Elton John and David Furnish

Explosions at the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead

Last Routemaster bus runs on regular service in London

England regain the 'Ashes' after a gripping Test series (but are whitewashed 5-0 in the return series in Australia 2007)

IRA declare an end to their 'armed struggle'

Suicide bombers attack London for the first time

London chosen as venue for the 2012 Olympic Games

Ban on hunting with dogs came into force in England & Wales (had already been a similar law for about two years in Scotland)

Kyoto Protocol on climate change came into force

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

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

Ireland becomes first country in the world to ban smoking in public places

Queen Mary 2 arrives in Southampton from the builder's yard in France 2004

Saddam Hussein captured near his home town of Tikrit (executed 30 Dec 2006)

England wins Rugby World Cup in nail-biting final in Australia - first northern hemisphere team to do this

Last commercial flight of Concorde

Temperatures reach record high of 101 F (38.3 C) in Kent

Iraq War

Start of Congestion Charge for traffic entering central London

Invasion of Iraq

George W. Bush

Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon

The Queen Mother dies, aged 101 years

Census of Canada PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Millennium Bridge over the Thames in London finally opens

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

UK Christmas stamps self-adhesive for the first time (self-adhesive 1st & 2nd class definitives already on sale)

Concorde flights resume after modifications to tyres and fuel tanks

War in Afghanistan

New-style number plates on road vehicles in UK [eg. AB 51 ABC]

General Election - Labour returned again with a large majority, the first time they had succeeded in gaining a second term

FA Cup Final played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff - first time away from Wembley since 1922

Outbreak of Foot & Mouth disease in UK - lasted until October - caused postponement of local and general elections from May to June

George W. Bush

Derailment at speed on the main London-North eastern line at Hatfield caused by a broken rail

Heavy rains cause worst flooding since records began (1850s) in many parts of Britain (Oct-Dec)

'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

A chartered Air France Concorde crashes on take-off at Paris with the loss of all lives

Millennium footbridge over the Thames opens, but wobbles and is quickly declared dangerous and closed - finally reopened Feb 2002

Ken Livingstone elected first Mayor of London (not to be confused with Lord Mayor of London!)

The Big Number Change takes place in the UK - affected telephone dialling codes assigned to Cardiff, Coventry, London, Northern Ireland, Portsmouth and Southampton

London Eye opens, late but popular

The year in Britain started with a 'flu bug rather than a millennium bug

Hereditary Peers no longer have right to sit in House of Lords

Total eclipse of the sun visible in Devon and Cornwall

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

Nunavut created in the Arctic

World population reaches 6 billion

Scientists measure the fastest wind speed ever recorded on earth, 509 km/h(318 mph)

Tekno Bubbles patented

European Monetary Union begins - UK opts out - by the end of the year the Euro has approximately the same value as the US Dollar

'Google' search engine founded

Car bomb explodes in Omagh killing 29 people

Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland - effectively implemented in May 2007

Viagra® invented

Land speed record breaks sound barrier for first time

Diana, Princess of Wales killed in car crash in Paris

IRA declares a ceasefire

Hong Kong returned to China

First time a computer beats a master at chess (IBM's Deep Blue v Garry Kasparov)

Announcement that Bank of England to be made independent of Government control

'New' Labour landslide victory in Britain (Tony Blair replaces John Major as Prime Minister)

Channel 5 TV begins in UK (launched by the Spice Girls)

Census of Canada PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

The gas-powered fuel cell invented

Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales are divorced

Scientists in Scotland clone a sheep (Dolly)

IRA bomb explodes in Manchester

Dunblane massacre

IRA bomb explodes in London Docklands - ends 17 month ceasefire

Web TV invented

Toy Story' released - first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery

The Queen Mother has a hip replacement operation at 95 years old

First item sold on Amazon.com

Nick Leeson brings down Barings Bank

Intervention in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The Java computer language invented

DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc) invented

National Lottery starts

William Jefferson Clinton

Channel Tunnel open to traffic

Church of England ordains its first female priests

15 million people now connected to the Internet

HIV protease inhibitor invented

Ratification of Maastricht Treaty, established the European Union (EU)

Bill Clinton

Elizabeth II becomes first British Monarch to pay Income Tax

Betty Boothroyd first woman Speaker of the House of Commons (to 2000)

The pentium processor invented

The Queen describes this year as an 'Annus Horribilis'

Fire breaks out in Windsor Castle causing over ?50 million worth of damage

'Black Wednesday' as Pound leaves the ERM

Football Premier League kicks off in England

27th Amendment ratified PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Betty Boothroyd elected as first female Speaker of the House of Commons

European Union formed by The Maastricht Treaty

The smart pill invented

Robert Maxwell drowns at sea

Leningrad renamed St Petersburg

Collapse of the Soviet Union

Helen Sharman is first British Astronaut in Space

The 'Internet' comes into existence

Poll Tax replaced (by Council Tax)

Census of Canada

The digital answering machine invented

Channel Tunnel excavation teams meet in the middle

Margaret Thatcher resigns as Conservative party leader (and Prime Minister)

US Invasion of Panama PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Gulf War

George H.W. Bush

Hubble space telescope launched

Riots in London against Poll Tax which had been implemented in England & Wales

Nelson Mandela released in South Africa

Persian Gulf War

The World Wide Web/Internet protocol (HTTP) and WWW language (HTML) created by Tim Berners-Lee

Proceedings of House of Commons first televised live

Berlin Wall torn down

EU decision to ban production of all chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by the end of the century

The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is placed into orbit

George H. W. Bush

Poll Tax implemented in Scotland

High-definition television invented

Free Trade Agreement with U.S.

Lockerbie disaster - Pan Am flight 103 explodes over Scotland

Clapham Junction rail crash kills 35 and injures hundreds after two collisions of three commuter trains

Copyright, Designs and Patents Act - reformulated the statutory basis of copyright law (including performing rights) in the UK

Piper Alpha disaster - North Sea oil platform destroyed by explosion and fire killing 167 men

First 'Red Nose Day' in UK, raising money for charity

Digital cellular phones invented

The RU-486 (abortion pill) invented

Doppler radar invented by Christian Andreas Doppler

Prozac® invented at the Eli Lilly Company by inventor Ray Fuller

The first patent for a genetically engineered animal is issued to Harvard University researchers Philip Leder and Timothy Stewar

Ralph Alessio and Fredrik Olsen received a patent for the Indiglo ® nightlight

King's Cross fire in London - 31 people die

Enniskillen bombing at a Remembrance Day ceremony

'Black Monday' in the City of London - Stock Market crash

The 'Hurricane' sweeps southern England

Hungerford Massacre - Michael Ryan kills sixteen people with a rifle

Excavation begins on the Channel Tunnel

Car ferry Herald of Free Enterprise' capsizes off Zeebrugge - 188 die

Terry Waite kidnapped in Beirut (released 17 Nov 1991)

World population crossed the 5 billion mark

The first 3-D video game invented

Disposable contact lenses invented

M25 motorway ring around London completed

'Big Bang' (deregulation) of the London Stock Market

Prince Andrew, Duke of York marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey

The European Community adopts the European flag

Chernobyl nuclear accident - radiation reached Britain on 2 Ma

GLC and 6 metropolitan councils abolished

Census of Canada

A high-temperature super-conductor invented by J. Georg Bednorz and Karl A. Muller

Synthetic skin invented by G. Gregory Gallico, III

Fuji introduced the disposable camera

Plane crash in Gander, Newfoundland

Wreck of Titanic' found (sank 1912)

Live Aid' pop concert raises over ?50M for famine relief

Al Fayed buys Harrods

Miners agree to call off strike

Grenada PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Windows program invented by Microsoft

British Telecom privatised - shares make massive gains on first day's trading

Miners' strike ? High Court orders sequestration of NUM assets

IRA bomb explodes at Tory conference hotel in Brighton - 4 killed

York Minster struck by lightning - the resulting fire damaged much of the building but the Rose Window' not affected

Inaugural flight of Virgin Atlantic

Police Constable Yvonne Fletcher killed by gunfire from the Libyan Embassy in London

Miners strike begins

The CD-ROM invented

The Apple Macintosh invented

Brinks Mat robbery: 6,800 gold bars worth nearly ?26 million are stolen from a vault at Heathrow Airport

Plans to abolish GLC announced

Canadian Constitution Act replaces British North America Act of 1867 PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

?1 coin into circulation in Britain

Seat belt law comes into force

Start of breakfast TV in Britain

First female Lord Mayor of London elected (Dame Mary Donaldson)

The Apple Lisa invented

Soft bifocal contact lens invented

First Cabbage Patch Kids sold

Programmer Jaron Lanier first coins the term "virtual reality"

Women's peace protest at Greenham Common (Cruise missiles arrived 14 Nov 1983)

Lorries up to 38 tonnes allowed on Britain's roads

Channel 4 TV station launched - first programme 'Countdown'

Thames Barrier raised for first time (some say first public demonstration Nov 7)

Mary Rose' raised in the Solent (sank in 1545)

Smiley emoticon :-) said to have been used for the first time

Ronald Reagan

IRA bombings in London (Hyde Park and Regents Park)

Prince William is born

Ceasefire in Falklands

First land battle in Falklands (Goose Green)

British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks Argentine cruiser General Belgrano

Royal Navy fleet sails from Portsmouth for Falklands

Argentina invades Falkland (Malvinas) Islands

Argentinians raised flag in South Georgia

DeLorean Car factory in Belfast goes into receivership

Laker Airways collapses

Unemployment reached 3 million in Britain (1 in 8 of working population)

Human growth hormone genetically engineered

IBM launches its PC ? starts the general use of personal computers

First IBM PC

Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer (divorced 28 Aug 1996)

First use of computer mouse (by Xerox PARC system)

Worst April blizzards this century in Britain

Brixton riots in South London - 30 other British cities also experience riots

First London marathon run

Launch of SDP by 'Gang of Four' in Britain

Ronald Reagan

MS-DOS invented

The first IBM-PC invented

The scanning tunneling microscope invented by Gerd Karl Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer

John Lennon assassinated in New York

SAS storm Iranian Embassy in London to free hostages

The hepatitis-B vaccine invented

ILEA votes to abolish corporal punishment in its schools

Lord Mountbatten and 3 others killed in bomb blast off coast of Sligo, Ireland

Sony introduces the Walkman

Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman UK Prime Minister

Withdrawal of the Royal Navy from Malta

Airey Neave killed by a car bomb at Westminster

32.5% of Scots vote in favor of devolution (40% needed) - Welsh vote overwhelmingly against

Cellular phones invented

Cray supercomputer invented by Seymour Cray

Walkman invented

Scott Olson invents roller blades

Publication of The Times suspended - industrial relations problems (until 13 Nov 1979)

Jimmy Carter

World's first 'test tube' baby, Louise Browne born in Oldham

First May Day holiday in Britain

Regular broadcast of proceedings in Parliament starts

Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston invented the VisiCalc spreadsheet

The artificial heart Jarvik-7 invented by Robert K. Jarvik

Regular supersonic Concorde service between London and NY inaugurated

Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations in London

Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on sale

George Lucas' film Star Wars' released

'Red Rum' wins a third Grand National

Canada abolishes death penalty PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Jimmy Carter

Magnetic resonance imaging invented by Raymond V. Damadian

Drought Act 1976 comes into force ? the long, hot summer

Apple Computer formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak

Concorde enters supersonic passenger service

National Theatre opens in London

James Callaghan becomes Prime Minister

Deaths exceeded live births in E&W for first time since records began in 1837

'Cod War' between Britain and Iceland

The ink-jet printer invented

Equal Pay Act and Sex Discrimination Act come into force

The name 'Micro-soft' coined by Bill Gates (Microsoft' became a Trademark the following year)

First North Sea oil comes ashore

'Yorkshire Ripper' commits his first murder

UK votes in a referendum to stay in the European Community

Charlie Chaplin knighted

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

Margaret Thatcher becomes leader of Conservative party (in opposition)

Unemployment in Britain rises above 1M for first time since before WW2

The laser printer invented

The push-through tab on a drink can invented

Birmingham pub bombings by the IRA

Lord Lucan disappears

Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford

Flixborough disaster: explosion at chemical plant kills 28 people

New counties formed in Britain after re-organisation of some county boundaries

Quebec makes french the official language

The post-it note invented by Arthur Fry

Giorgio Fischer, a gynecologist from Rome, Italy, invents liposuction

Miners strike and oil crisis precipitate 'three-day week' (till 9 Mar 1974) to conserve power

Marriage of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips in Westminster Abbey

Concorde makes its first non-stop crossing of the Atlantic in record-breaking time

VAT introduced in Britain

Modern London Bridge opened by the Queen

Gene splicing invented

The ethernet (local computer network) invented by Robert Metcalfe and Xerox

Bic invents the disposable lighter

Britain enters EEC Common Market (with Ireland and Denmark)

26th Amendment passed by Congress PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Duke of Windsor (ex-King Edward VIII) dies in Paris

'Bloody Sunday' in Derry, Northern Ireland

Dutch Elm disease devastates trees across UK

Domestic video cassette recorders introduced

Strict anti-hijack measures introduced internationally, especially at airports

Britain imposes direct rule in Northern Ireland

The word processor invented

Pong (first video game) invented by Nolan Bushnell

Hacky Sack® invented by John Stalberger and Mike Marshall

UK launches its first (and only) satellite, Prospero

Parliament votes to join Common Market (joined 1973)

Internment without trial introduced in N Ireland

War Measures Act Proclaimed in Quebec PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Decimalisation of coinage in UK and Republic of Ireland

26th Amendment ratified

Open University starts

Rolls-Royce declared bankrupt

'Greenpeace' founded

Sunday becomes the seventh day in the week as UK adopts decision of the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) to call Monday the first day

Banking and Financial Dealings Act - replaced the Bank Holidays Act of 1871

Census of Canada

Multiculturalism/Bilingualism Policy adopted

The dot-matrix printer invented

The food processor invented

The liquid-crystal display (LCD) invented by James Fergason

The microprocessor invented by Faggin, Hoff and Mazor

VCR or videocassette recorder invented

Ten shilling note (50p after decimalisation) goes out of circulation in Britain

First Glastonbury Festival held

Richard Nixon

Damages awarded to Thalidomide victims

Edward Heath becomes Prime Minister

Decimal postage stamps first issued for sale in Britain

Boeing 747 (Jumbo jet) goes into service

The daisy-wheel printer invented

The floppy disk invented by Alan Shugart

50p coin introduced in Britain (reduced in size 1998)

First episode of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' recorded

Civil disturbances in Ulster - Britain sends troops to support civil authorities

Halfpenny ceases to be legal tender in Britain

Maiden voyage of liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2)

Voting age lowered from 21 to 18

Victoria Line tube opens in London

Maiden flight of 'Concorde', at Toulouse

Richard Nixon

Canadian Armed Forces established PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

The arpanet (first internet) invented

The artificial heart invented

The ATM invented

The bar-code scanner is invented

Beginning of disturbances in N Ireland

Two-tier postal rate starts in Britain

Last steam passenger train service ran in Britain (Carlisle- Liverpool)

Manchester United first English club to win the European Cup

Issue of 5p and 10p decimal coins in Britain

Enoch Powell 'Rivers of Blood' speech on immigration

London Bridge sold (and eventually moved to Arizona) - modern London Bridge, built around it as it was demolished, was opened in Mar 1973

British Standard Time introduced - Summer Time became permanent but arguments prevailed and Britain reverted to GMT in October 1971

The computer mouse invented by Douglas Engelbart

The first computer with integrated circuits made

Robert Dennard invented RAM (random access memory)

Introduction of majority verdicts in English courts

25th Amendment ratified PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

BBC Radios 1 2 3 & 4 open first record played on Radio 1 was the controversial 'Flowers in the Rain' by 'The Move'

'Queen Mary' arrives Southampton at end of her last transatlantic voyage

'QE2' launched on Clydebank

Offshore pirate radio stations declared illegal by the UK

First colour TV in Britain

First withdrawal from a cash dispenser (ATM) in Britain - at Enfield branch of Barclays

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

'Torrey Canyon' oil tanker runs aground off Lands End first major oil spill

Donald Campbell dies attempting to break his world water speed record on Conniston Water - his body and Bluebird recovered in 2002

The first handheld calculator invented

First Christmas stamps issued in Britain

Aberfan disaster - slag heap slip kills 144, incl. 116 children

First Severn road bridge opens

World Cup won by England at Wembley (4-2 in extra time v West Germany)

'The Times' begins to print news on its front page in place of classified Advertisements

Canadian Flag changed PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Australia converts from ? to $

Electronic Fuel injection for cars invented

70mph speed limit introduced on British roads

24th Amendment ratified PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Death penalty for murder suspended in Britain for five-year trial period, then abolished 18 Dec 1969

Post Office Tower operational in London

TV cigarette advertising banned in Britain

25th Amendment passed by Congress

Winston Churchill dies

First US raids against North Vietnam

Canadian troops in Cyprus

Britain enacts first Race Relations Act

Astroturf invented

Soft contact lenses invented

NutraSweet invented

The compact disk invented by James Russell

Kevlar invented by Stephanie Louise Kwolek

Lyndon B. Johnson

Forth road bridge opens

'Match of the Day' starts on BBC2

BBC2 TV launched

First Greater London Council (GLC) election

24th Amendment passed by Congress PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Social Insurance cards first issued

Acrylic paint invented

Permanent-press fabric invented

BASIC (an early computer language) is invented by John George Kemeny and Tom Kurtz

First 'Top of the Pops' on BBC TV

First episode of 'Dr Who' on BBC TV

Lyndon B. Johnson

Dartford Tunnel opens

Fylingdales (Yorks) early warning system operational

'Great Train Robbery' on Glasgow to London mail train

Minimum prison age raised to 17

23rd Amendment ratified PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Beeching Report on British Railways (the 'Beeching Axe')

France vetoes Britain's entry into EEC

The first videodisc invented

Cold weather forces cancellation of most football matches (only 4 English First Division matches in the month) - the first 'pools panel' created

Cuba missile crisis - brink of nuclear war

John F. Kennedy

First TV transmission between US and Europe (Telstar) - first live broadcast on 23 Jul

First passenger-carrying hovercraft enters service, along the North Wales Coast from Moreton to Rhyl

First nuclear generated electricity to supplied National Grid (from Berkeley Glos)

Consecration of new Coventry Cathedral (old destroyed in WW2 blitz)

Bay of Pigs Invasion PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Trans-Canada Highway officially opens

Medicare introduced in Saskatchewan

Britain and France agree to construct 'Concorde'

Thalidomide withdrawn after it causes deformities in babies

Britain passes Commonwealth Immigrants Act to control immigration

The audio cassette invented

The fiber-tip pen invented by Yukio Horie

Spacewar, the first computer video game invented

Dow Corp invents silicone breast implants

Betting shops legal in Britain

23rd Amendment passed by Congress PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

New English Bible (New Testament) published

Black & White ?5 notes cease to be legal tender

St. Lawrence seaway opens PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

John F. Kennedy

Valium invented

The nondairy creamer invented

Farthing ceases to be legal tender in UK

Penguin Books found not guilty of obscenity in the 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' case

HMS 'Dreadnought' nuclear submarine launched

MoT tests on motor vehicles introduced

Hawaii PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Echo I, the first (passive) communications satellite, launched

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

Last steam locomotive of British Railways named

New ?1 notes issued by Bank of England

Vietnam War

Canada's Bill of Rights

The halogen lamp invented

Springhill Mine disaster PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

First section of M1 motorway opened

Postcodes introduced in Britain

Vietnam War

BMC Mini car launched

Empire Day becomes Commonwealth Day

Alaska PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Vanguard 2 satellite launched - first to measure cloud-cover distribution

'The Day The Music Died' - plane crash kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper

The internal pacemaker invented by Wilson Greatbatch

Barbie Doll invented

Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce both invent the microchip

Preston by-pass opens - UK's first stretch of motorway

Inauguration of Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) in Britain (completed in 1979)

Prince Charles' Investiture as 'Prince of Wales'

Velcro trade mark registered

USA begins to produce Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs)

Computers begin to be used in research, industry and commerce

Easter: First anti-nuclear protest march to Aldermaston (emergence of CND)

The modem invented

Gordon Gould invents the laser

The Hula Hoop invented by Richard Knerr and Arthur "Spud" Melin

The integrated circuit invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce

Queen's first Christmas TV broadcast

Lewisham rail disaster - 90 killed as two trains collide in thick fog and a viaduct collapses on top of them

Treaty of Rome to create European Economic Community (EEC) of six countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg - became operational Jan 1958

Britain explodes her first hydrogen bomb, at Christmas Island

Post-Suez petrol rationing ends

Harold Macmillan becomes Prime Minister

Helvetica typeface developed (in Switzerland)

Britain introduces parking meters

Fortran (computer language) invented

Britain and France invade Suez

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)

Premium Bonds first launched - first prizes drawn on 1 Jun 1957

Radiotelephony spelling alphabet introduced (Alpha, Bravo, etc)

Springhill Mine explosion

First nation-wide 5-year census

Britain constructs world's first large-scale nuclear power station in Cumberland

The first computer hard disk used

The hovercraft invented by Christopher Cockerell

Bette Nesmith Graham invented "Mistake Out," later renamed Liquid Paper, to paint over mistakes made with a typewriter

Commercial TV starts in Britain

Jul 27: Allied occupation of Austria (after WW2) ends

Hurricane Hazel PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

'Mole' self-grip wrench patented by Thomas Coughtrie of Mole & Sons

Tetracycline invented

Optic fiber invented

First atomic powered sumbmarine USS Nautilus commissioned

Dwight Eisenhower

BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin

Food rationing officially ends in Britain

First sub 4 minute mile (Roger Bannister, 3 mins 59.4 secs)

First transistor radios sold

Routemaster bus starts operating in London

First comprehensive school opens in London

Oral contraceptives invented

The first nonstick pan produced

The solar cell invented by Chaplin, Fuller and Pearson

Ray Kroc started McDonalds

Sugar rationing ends in Britain (after nearly 14 years)

Coronation of Elizabeth II

Francis Crick and James D Watson publish the double helix structure of DNA

Winston Churchill knighted

Jonas Salk announces his polio vaccine

Death of Stalin

22nd Amendment ratified PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Sweet rationing ends in Britain

Said to be the biggest civil catastrophe in Britain in the 20th century - severe storm and high tides caused the loss of hundreds of lives - - effects travelled from the west coast of Scotland round to the south-east coast of England [The Netherlands wer

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Radial tires invented

The first musical synthesizer invented by RCA

David Warren invented the black box - flight recorder

Transistor radio invented by Texas Instruments

Great smog hits London

Agatha Christie's 'The Mousetrap' opens in London

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.

End of tea rationing in Britain

DH110 crashes at Farnborough Air Show, 26 killed

Lynmouth (North Devon) flood disaster

Last tram runs in London (Woolwich to New Cross)

Elizabeth II

First commercial jet airliner service launched, by BOACComet between London and Johannesburg

Korean War

Identity Cards abolished in Britain

King George VI dies

Korean War

Bonn Convention: Britain, France and USA end their occupation of West Germany

Radioactive carbon used for dating prehistoric objects

Contraceptive pill invented

Britain explodes her first atomic bomb, in Australia

Mr. Potato Head patented

The first patent for bar code (US Patent #2,612,994) issued to inventors Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver

The first diet soft drink sold

Edward Teller and team build the hydrogen bomb

Electricity first produced by nuclear power, from Experimental Breeder Reactor

Newfoundland joins Canada PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

First Goon Show broadcast

Festival of Britain and Royal Festival Hall open on South Bank, London

Super glue invented

Power steering invented by Francis W. Davis

Charles Ginsburg invented the first videotape recorder (VTR)

The Peak District becomes the Britain's first National Park

Soap rationing ends in Britain

'Andy Pandy' first seen on BBC TV

Korean War

Petrol rationing ends in Britain

Points rationing ends in Britain

Winnipeg flood

The first credit card (Diners) invented by Ralph Schneider

Twelve nations sign The North Atlantic Treaty creating NATO

Canada joins NATO

Clothes rationing ends in Britain

De Haviland produces the Comet - first jet airliner

Maiden flight of the Bristol Brabazon (broken up in 1953 for scrap)

Cake mix invented

22nd Amendment passed by Congress PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

London Olympics begin

National Health Service (NHS) begins in Britain

Transistor radio invented

Long-playing record (LP) invented by Goldmark

British Citizenship Act : all Commonwealth citizens qualify for British passports

The Frisbee® invented by Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni

Velcro ® invented by George de Mestral

Robert Hope-Jones invented the Wurlitzer jukebox

British Railways nationalised

Marriage of Princess Elizabeth (later Elizabeth II) and Philip Mountbatten in Westminster Abbey

British military occupation ends in Iraq

School leaving age raised to 15 in Britain

International Monetary Fund begins financial operations

International Organization for Standardization (ISO) founded

Canada joins the United Nations PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

First British nuclear reactor developed

Most severe winter in Britain for 53 years at start of the year - heavy snow and much flooding later

British/Hungarian scientist, Dennis Gabor, developed the theory of holography

Mobile phones first invented

Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley invent the transistor

Earl Silas Tupper patented the Tupperware seal

Coal Mines nationalised

Bank of England nationalised

Canadian Citizenship Act

Alistair Cooke starts his regular 'Letter from America' on BBC radio - until 2004

Transition to National Health Service starts in Britain (came into being 5th July 1948)

The microwave oven invented by Percy Spencer

First civillian flight from Heathrow Airport

Harry Truman

UNESCO founded

United Nations Organisation comes into existence

Japanese surrender signed aboard USS Missouri

VJ Day (Victory in Japan)

Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki

Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima

BBC Light Programme starts

Labour win UK General Election - Churchill out of office

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)

UN Charter signed in San Francisco

Channel Islands liberated

VE Day (Victory in Europe)

Hitler commits suicide

Berlin surrounded by Russian troops

Harry S. Truman

Last V1 flying bomb attack

Yalta Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin

Newfoundland census

Vannevar Bush proposes hypertext

The atomic bomb invented

Battle of the Bulge: German counter-offensive

Allies enter Germany

First V2 rocket bombs hit London

First V1 flying bombs hit London

D-Day invasion of Normandy

Allies enter Rome

PAYE income tax begins

The kidney dialysis machine invented by Willem Kolff

Synthetic cortisone invented by Percy Lavon Julian

Allies invade Italy - Benito Mussolini resigns as Italian Dictator, 24 July

'Dam Buster' raids on Ruhr dams by RAF

Round-the-clock bombing of Germany begins

Synthetic rubber invented

Richard James invents the slinky

James Wright invent silly putty

Swiss chemist, Albert Hofmann discovered the hallucinogenic properties of LSD

Emile Gagnan and Jacques Cousteau invent the aqualung

'Manhattan Project' - a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction

Battle of El Alamein - Montgomery defeats Rommel

First successful launch of V2 rocket in Germany - first man-made object to reach space

Germans defeated at Stalingrad

Abortive raid on Dieppe, largely by Canadian troops

Battle of Midway

Over 1,000 allied bombers raid Cologne

Census of Canada PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Gilbert Murray founds Oxfam

Invention of world's first programmable computer by Alan Turing in co-operation with Max Neumann - used to crack German codes

John Atanasoff and Clifford Berry built the first electronic digital computer

Max Mueller designs a turboprop engine

Hong Kong falls to the Japanese

USA enters WWII

Japan attackes US fleet at Pearl Harbour

World War II

'Manhattan Project' of nuclear research begins in America

Canadian forces given operation role in defending south coast of England

Canada declares war on Japan

First Canadian armoured regiments arrive in Britain

Germany invades Russia (Operation Barbarossa)

'Bismark' sunk

Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland

Canadian forces defend south coast of England

First use of antibiotics

Bailey invents his portable military bridge

First British jet aircraft flies, based on work of Whittle

Britain introduces severe rationing

Konrad Zuse's Z3, the first computer controlled by software

Aerosol spray cans invented by American inventors, Lyle David Goodloe and W.N. Sullivan

Enrico Fermi invents the neutronic reactor

Coventry heavily bombed and the Cathedral almost completely destroyed

Battle of Britain: massive waves of German air attacks decisively repulsed by the RAF - Hitler postpones invasion of Britain

Germany launches bombing blitz on Britain, the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing

Fall of France to Germany

Start of the evacuation of the British Army at Dunkirk (27 May - 4 Jun)

Germany invades France

National Government formed under Churchill

BOAC starts operations, replacing Imperial and British Airways Ltd

Québec permits women to vote

National Registration

German occupation of Denmark

Dr William Reich invents the orgone accumulator

Peter Goldmark invents modern color television system

Karl Pabst invents the jeep

'Admiral Graf Spee' scuttled outside Montevideo

'First flight' of Canadian troops sail for Britain - 7,400 men on 5 ships

HMS Royal Oak sunk in Scapa Flow with loss of 810 lives

Canada declares war on Germany PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France

First air-raid on Britain

Britain and France declare war on Germany

Germany invades Poland

Troops leave Canada

World War II

Coldest winter in Britain since 1894, though this could not be publicised at the time

Start of evacuation of women and children from London

Germany annexes Czechoslovakia

World War II

Igor Sikorsky invents the first successful helicopter

The electron microscope invented

Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of HG Wells 'The War of the Worlds', causing panic in the USA

Chamberlain visits Hitler in Munich - promises 'peace in our time'

Largest ocean liner ever built, Queen Elizabeth launched on Clydebank

'Mallard' reaches 126 mph (203 km/h); still world record for a steam locomotive

Germany invades and annexes Austria

First practical ball-point pen produced by Hungarian journalist, Lajos Biro

HMS Rodney first ship to be equipped with radar

Principle of paid holidays established in Britain

The ballpoint pen invented by Ladislo Biro

Strobe lighting invented

Roy J. Plunkett invented tetrafluoroethylene polymers or Teflon

Nescafe or freeze-dried coffee invented

The first working turboprop engine

'The Dandy' first published

Edward VIII PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Duke of Windsor marries Wallis Simpson

Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister - policy of appeasement towards Hitler

Coronation of King George VI

Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft

Billy Butlin opens his first holiday camp

'999' emergency telephone call facility starts in London

Chester F. Carlson invents the photocopier

The first jet engine is built

Edward VIII abdicates (announced Dec 10) - popular carol that Christmas: 'Hark the Herald Angels sing Mrs Simpson's got our King'

Crystal Palace destroyed by fire

George VI

British Broadcasting Corporation initiates the BBC Television Service, world's first public TV transmission

'Speaking clock' service starts in UK

First flight of a Spitfire

George V dies

Jet engine first tested

Bell Labs invents the voice recognition machine

Samuel Colt patents the Colt revolver

Penguin paperbacks launched

Voluntary driving tests introduced in UK

Hore-Belisha introduces pedestrian crossings and speed limits for built-up areas in Britain

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)

Land speed record of 301.13 mph by Malcolm Campbell

London adopts a 'Green Belt' scheme

Newfoundland census

Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents nylon ( polymer 6.6.)

The first canned beer made

Robert Watson-Watt patented radar

First time a steam locomotive travels at 100 mph ('Flying Scotsman')

20th Amendment ratified PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

RMS Queen Mary launched

21st Amendment passed by Congress PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

King George V opens Mersey Tunnel

Hitler becomes Fuehrer of Germany

Englishmen, Percy Shaw invents cat eyes or roads reflectors

Charles Darrow claims he invented the game Monopoly

Joseph Begun invents the first tape recorder for broadcasting - first magnetic recording

First known photos of the 'Loch Ness Monster' taken

21st Amendment ratified

Franklin Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

ICI scientists discover polythene

Only 6 pennies minted in Britain this year

Frequency modulation (FM radio) invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong

Stereo records invented

Richard M. Hollingshead builds a prototype drive-in movie theater in his driveway

Iraq gains independence from Britain

'The Times' introduces 'Times New Roman' typeface

Amelia Earhart first solo nonstop flight across Atlantic by a female pilot

20th Amendment passed by Congress

Sir Thomas Beecham established the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Cockroft and Walton accelerate particles to disintegrate an atomic nucleus

Moseley founds British Union of Fascists

Great Hunger March of unemployed to London

Polaroid photography invented by Edwin Herbert Land

The zoom lens and the light meter invented

Carl C. Magee invents the first parking meter

Karl Jansky invents the radio telescope

National Government formed to deal with economic crisis - Britain comes off gold standard

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)

Highway Code first issued

Collapse of the German banking system; 3,000 banks there close

Statute of Westminster: British Dominions become independent sovereign states

Statute of Westminster

Harold Edgerton invented stop-action photography

Germans Max Knott and Ernst Ruska co-invent the electron microscope

R101 airship disaster - British abandons airship construction

The 'Persons' Case Decision PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Clarence Birdseye first marketed frozen peas

3M begins marketing Scotch Tape

Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany

Youth Hostel Association (YHA) founded in Britain

First Nazis elected to the German Reichstag

Scotch tape patented by 3M engineer, Richard G. Drew

The frozen food process patented by Clarence Birdseye

Wallace Carothers and DuPont Labs invents neoprene

The "differential analyzer", or analog computer invented by Vannevar Bush at MIT in Boston

Frank Whittle and Dr Hans von Ohain both invent a jet engine

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover

BBC begins experimental TV transmissions

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

Abolition of Poor Law system in Britain

The Great Depression

American, Paul Galvin invents the car radio

Yo-Yo re-invented as an American fad

Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers penicillin (results published 1929)

Madame Tussauds opens in London

Women over 21 get vote in Britain - same qualification for both sexes

Scottish biologist Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin

Bubble gum invented by Walter E. Diemer

Jacob Schick patented the electric shaver

The Menin Gate war memorial unveiled at Ypres

Last Ford Model T rolls off assembly line

Lindbergh makes solo flight across the Atlantic, in 33? hours

First cooked meals on a scheduled flight introduced by Imperial Airways from London to Paris

First football broadcast by BBC (Arsenal v Sheffield United at Highbury)

First transatlantic telephone call - New York City to London

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

Eduard Haas III invents PEZ candy

JWA Morrison invents the first quartz crystal watch

Philo Taylor Farnsworth invents a complete electronic TV system

Technicolor invented

Erik Rotheim patents an aerosol can

Warren Marrison developed the first quartz clock

Philip Drinker invents the iron lung

Death of Harry Houdini

General Strike begins. Lasts until May 12 (mine workers for 6 months more)

Princess Elizabeth born

Walt Disney arrives in Hollywood

Kodak produces 16mm movie film

Adoption of children is legalised in Britain

First public demonstration of television (TV) by John Logie Baird

Robert H. Goddard invents liquid-fueled rockets

Adolf Hitler publishes Mein Kampf

Britain returns to gold standard

The mechanical television a precursor to the modern television, invented by John Logie Baird

British Imperial Airways begins operations (formed by merger of four British airline companies - became BOAC in 1940)

Hourly Greenwich Time Signals from the Royal Greenwich Observatory were first broadcast by the BBC

First Labour government in Britain, headed by Ramsay MacDonald

The dynamic loudspeaker invented by Rice and Kellogg

Notebooks with spiral bindings invented

First publication of Radio Times

Calvin Coolidge

First Wembley cup final (West Ham 0, Bolton 2) - 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles ' popular song of the time became the West Ham anthem

Calvin Coolidge

Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun

First American broadcasts heard in Britain

Hubble shows there are galaxies beyond the Milky Way

Roads in Great Britain classified with A and B numbers

Garrett A. Morgan invents a traffic signal

The television or iconoscope (cathode-ray tube) invented by Vladimir Kosma Zworykin

John Harwood invented the self-winding watch

Clarence Birdseye invents frozen food

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

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)

Canada's Coat of Arms proclaimed by George V PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Royal Ulster Constabulary founded

Law of Property Act - the manorial system effectively ended

Insulin invented by Sir Frederick Grant Banting

The first 3-D movie (spectacles with one red and one green lens) is released

Anglo-Irish Treaty signed in London, leading to the formation of the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland

Census: Population - England and Wales: 37.9 Million; Scotland: 4.9 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million

19th Amendment ratified PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Warren Harding

Warren G. Harding

Census of Canada

First birth control clinic

Insulin discovery announced

Railway Act in Britain amalgamates companies - only four remained

Newfoundland census

Artificial life begins -- the first robot built

John Larson invented the lie detector

18th Amendment ratified PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

First roadside petrol filling station in UK - opened by the Automobile Association at Aldermaston on the Bath Road

Thompson patents his machine gun (Tommy gun)

Marconi opens a radio broadcasting station in Britain

Regular cross-channel air service starts

After a referendum, northern Schleswig is returned to Denmark

The tommy gun patented by John T Thompson

The Band-Aid (pronounced 'ban-'dade) invented by Earle Dickson

Treaty of Versailles signed

Alcock and Brown complete first nonstop flight across the Atlantic

19th Amendment passed by Congress

Sir Ernest Rutherford publishes account of splitting the atom

Britain adopts a 48-hour working week

Soldier Settlement Act

The pop-up toaster invented by Charles Strite

Short-wave radio invented

The flip-flop circuit invented

The arc welder invented

First woman elected to House of Commons, Countess Markiewicz as a Sinn Fein member refused to take her seat

Armistice signed

Arab forces under Lawrence of Arabia capture Damascus

Second Battle of the Marne: last major German offensive in WW1 (Jul-Aug)

18th Amendment passed by Congress PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Ontario forest fire PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Start of world-wide 'flu pandemic

Bentley Motors founded

War of Independence in Ireland

Vote for women over 30, men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons)

The superheterodyne radio circuit invented by Edwin Howard Armstrong

Charles Jung invented fortune cookies

British forces capture Jerusalem

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

'October' Revolution in Russia - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government; Lenin becomes Chief Commissar

WW1 - Vimy Ridge PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Battle of Passchendaele - little gained by either side (Jul-Nov)

The Halifax Explosion

George V changes surname from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor (Royal proclamation on 17 July)

USA declares war on Germany

Lenin returns to Russia after exile

World War I

February revolution in Russia; Tsar Nicholas abdicates

Ministry of Labour is established in Britain

Battle of Cambrai - first use of massed tanks, but effect more psychological than actual

Income Tax introduced

Gideon Sundback patented the modern zipper (not the first zipper)

Lloyd-George becomes British Prime Minister of the coalition government

First use of tanks in battle, but of limited effect (Battle of the Somme 1 July to 18 Nov: over 1 million casualties)

Sir Roger Casement hanged at Pentonville Prison for treason

Empress of Ireland sinks PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Sinking of HMS Hampshire and death of Kitchener

Battle of Jutland - only major naval battle between the British and German fleets

First use of Daylight Saving Time in UK

Easter Rising in Ireland - after the leaders are executed, public opinion backs independence

Battle of Verdun - appalling losses on both sides, stalemate continues

Compulsory military service introduced in Britain

Women get vote in Manitoba

Radios tuners invented, that received different stations

Stainless steel invented by Henry Brearly

Alberta coal mine disaster PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

First meeting of a British WI (Women's Institute) took place in Llanfairpwll (aka Llanfair PG), Anglesey

RMS Lusitania sunk by German submarine off coast of Ireland - 1,198 died

Gallipoli campaign starts (declared ANZAC Day in 1916)

Second Battle of Ypres - poison gas used for first time

Submarine blockade of Britain starts

First Zeppelin air raid on England, over East Anglia - four killed

Junkers construct first fighter aeroplane

First automatic telephone exchange in Britain

A new constitution establishes a two-chamber parliament elected by universal suffrage

Eugene Sullivan and William Taylor co-invented Pyrex in New York City

German battleships bombard Hartlepool and Scarborough

First policewoman goes on duty in Britain

Battle of Ypres - beginning of trench warfare on western front

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)

British cableship Telconia cut through all five of Germany's undersea telegraph links to the outside world

Britain declares war on Germany, citing Belgian neutrality as reason

Archduke Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo

Saskatchewan tornado PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

World War I

Chaplin and De Mille make their first films

Irish Home Rule Act provides for a separate Parliament in Ireland; the position of Ulster to be decided after the War

World War One

Garrett A. Morgan invents the Morgan gas mask

Alaska Territory Organized

17th Amendment ratified PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby and dies

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

16th Amendment ratified PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Arizona PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

17th Amendment passed by Congress PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Geiger invents his counter to measure radioactivity

Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley of Sheffield

Trade Union Act in Britain establishes the right to use Union funds for political purposes

Suffragette demonstrations in London - Mrs Pankhurst imprisoned

Third Irish Home Rule Bill rejected by House of Lords - threat of civil war in Ireland - formation of Ulster Volunteers to oppose Home Rule

The crossword puzzle invented by Arthur Wynne

The Merck Chemical Company patented, what is now know as, ecstasy

Mary Phelps Jacob invents the bra

Gideon Sundback invents the modern zipper

New Mexico PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Royal Flying Corps (later the RAF) founded in Britain

The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinks on maiden voyage - loss of 1,513 lives

Captain Scott's last expedition - he and his team reach the south pole on Jan 18th; all die on the way back, their bodies found in November

Britain nationalises the telephone system

Discovery of the 'Piltdown Man' - hoax, exposed in 1953

Irish Home Rule crisis grows in Britain

Motorized movie cameras invented, replaced hand-cranked cameras

The first tank patented by Australian inventor De La Mole

Clarence Crane created Life Savers candy in 1912

National Insurance introduced in Britain

Coronation of George V

Census: Population - England and Wales: 36 Million; Scotland: 4.6 Million; N Ireland: 1.25 Million

Census of Canada

Strikes by seamen, dock and transport workers (1911-1912)

Rutherford: theory of atomic structures

First British Official Secrets Act

British MPs receive a salary

Parliament Act in Britain reduces the power of the House of Lords

Charles Franklin Kettering invents the first automobile electrical ignition system

George V

Edward VII dies - George V becomes King

Halley's comet reappears

Tango becomes popular in North America and Europe

Madame Curie isolates radium

Dr Crippen caught by radio telegraphy; hanged 23 Nov at Pentonville

Constitutional crisis in Britain

Railway strike and coal strikes in Britain

Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture

Georges Claude displayed the first neon lamp to the public on December 11, 1910, in Paris

Bleriot flies across the Channel (36 minutes, Calais to Dover)

William Taft

Selfridges department store opens in London

William Howard Taft

16th Amendment passed by Congress

Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole

First commercial manufacture of Bakelite - start of the plastic age

Peary reaches the north pole

Beveridge Report prompts creation of labour Exchanges

Instant coffee invented by G. Washington

Old Age Pensions Act came into force

First 'Model T' Ford made

SOS became effective as an international signal of distress

Oklahoma PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Lord Baden-Powell starts the Boy Scout movement

Separate courts for juveniles established in Britain

Coal Mines Regulation Act in Britain limits men to an eight hour day

Border Ports established

The gyrocompass invented by Elmer A. Sperry

Cellophane invented by Jacques E. Brandenberger

Model T first sold

J W Geiger and W Müller invent the geiger counter

Fritz Haber invents the Haber Process for making artificial nitrates

Census of Northwest Provinces PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

The Cullinan Diamond presented to Edward VII on his birthday

Baden-Powell leads the first Scout camp on Brownsea Island

Leo Hendrik Baekeland patents Bakelite, the first plastic invented that held its shape after being heated

Lumiere develops a process for colour photography

First airship flies over London

New Zealand becomes a Dominion

Imperial College, London, is established

Leo Baekeland invents the first synthetic plastic called Bakelite

Color photography invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere

The very first piloted helicopter was invented by Paul Cornu

Launching of Cunard's RMS Mauretania on the Tyne

Vauxhall Bridge opened in London

Rolls-Royce Ltd registered

Launching of HMS Dreadnought, first turbine-driven battleship

Introduction of free school meals for poor children

Amundsen traverses the North-West Passage

William Kellogg invents Cornflakes

Lewis Nixon invents the first sonar like device

Lee Deforest invents electronic amplifying tube (triode)

Frank Slide, Alberta PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Einstein publishes Special Theory of Relativity

Alberta and Saskatchewan join Canada

Germany lays down the first Dreadnought battleship

Aliens Act in Britain: Home Office controls immigration

The title 'Prime Minister' noted in a royal warrant for the first time - placed the Prime Minister in order of precedence in Britain immediately after the Archbishop of York

Albert Einstein published the Theory of Relativity and made famous the equation, E = mc2

Mary Anderson receives a patent for windshield wipers

America takes over construction of the Panama Canal from the French (completed 1914)

France and UK sign the Entente Cordiale

Leeds University established

Teabags invented by Thomas Suillivan

Benjamin Holt invents a tractor

John A Fleming invents a vacuum diode or Fleming valve

First flight of Wilbur & Orville Wright

Census of Canada PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Women's Social and Political Union formed in Britain by Emmeline Pankhurst

Henry Ford sets up his motor company

Workers' Education Association (WEA) formed in Britain

Canada loses the Alaska Boundary Dispute to the USA

Edward Binney and Harold Smith co-invent crayons

Bottle-making machinery invented by Michael J. Owens

The Wright brothers invent the first gas motored and manned airplane

Mary Anderson invents windshield wipers

William Coolidge invents ductile tungsten used in lightbulbs

Edward VII

Coronation of Edward VII

Treaty of Vereeniging ends Second Boer War

Empire Day (later Commonwealth Day) first celebrated

Theodore Roosevelt

Marie Curie discovers radioactivity

Cremation Act - cremation can only take place at officially recognised establishments, and with two death certificates issued

Balfour's Education Act provides for secondary education

Willis Carrier invents the air conditioner

French physicist George Claude invents neon light

The lie detector or polygraph machine is invented by James Mackenzie

The birth of the Teddy Bear

First successful radio transmission across the Atlantic, by Marconi - Morse code from Cornwall to Newfoundland

Britain's first submarine launched

Theodore Roosevelt

Boer War PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Denunciation of use of concentration camps by British in Boer War

Queen Victoria's funeral - interred beside Prince Albert in the Frogmore Mausoleum at Windsor Great Park

Queen Victoria dies - Edward VII king

Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner

Commonwealth of Australia founded

King Camp Gillette invents the double-edged safety razor

The first radio receiver, successfully received a radio transmission

Hubert Booth invents a compact and modern vacuum cleaner

Labour Party formed

Davis Cup tennis competition established

School leaving age in Britain raised to 14 years

Central Line opens in London: underground is electrified

Escalator shown at Paris exhibition

The zeppelin invented by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin

Charles Seeberger redesigned Jesse Reno's escalator and invented the modern escalator

Boxer Rebellion

Start of Second Boer War

Spanish-American War PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Philippine-American War

Aspirin first marketed by Bayer

The Yukon joins Canada PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

J.S. Thurman patents the motor-driven vacuum cleaner

I.R. Johnson patents the bicycle frame

Territory of Hawaii was Oraganized

The first solo circumnavigation of the globe completed at Rhode island by Joshua Slocum in Spray (started from Boston, Mass on Apr 24, 1895)

Spanish-American War

USS Holland launched, the first practical submarine

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company founded

Zeppelin builds airship

First photograph using artificial light

Klondike gold rush

Yukon gold rush

Rudolf Diesel receives patent #608,845 for an "internal combustion engine" the Diesel engine

Edwin Prescott patents the roller coaster

William McKinley

William McKinley

Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector

Guglielmo Marconi receives a British patent (later disputed) for the radio

First modern Olympic Games held in Athens

Utah PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Gold discovered in Yukon

American, H. O'Sullivan invents the rubber heel

X-rays discovered

First people in Britain to be charged with motor offences - John Henry Knight and James Pullinger of Farnham, Surrey

First recorded motor journey of any length (56 miles) in Britain

Oscar Wilde sent to prison

Henry Irving becomes the first person from the theatre to be knighted

The National Trust founded in England

Sir Henry Wood starts Promenade Concerts in London

Lumiere Brothers using their Cinematographe are the first to present a projected motion picture to an audience of more that one

Lumiere Brothers invent a portable motion-picture camera, film processing unit and projector called the Cinematographe

Death duties first introduced in Britain

Tower Bridge first opens

Blackpool Tower opens

Picture postcard introduced in Britain

Manchester Ship Canal opens

Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland

Zip fastener invented

Henry Ford's first car

American, W.L. Judson invents the zipper

Edward Goodrich Acheson invents carborundum

Alfred Lord Tennyson dies, aged 83, at his house Aldworth, near Haslemere

Electric oven invented

Shop Hours Act - limit 74 hours per week for under-18's

Sir James Dewar invents the Dewar flask or vacuum flask

Rudolf Diesel invents the diesel-fueled internal combustion engine

Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera

Census of Canada PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Fictional date when Sherlock Holmes throws Moriarty over Reichenbach Falls, then disappears for 3 years! (published in 1893)

First telephone link between London & Paris

Primary education made free and compulsory

First Children's Aid Society is established in Toronto

Jesse W. Reno invents the escalator

City & South London Railway opens - London's first deep-level tube railway and first major railway in the world to use electric traction

Wyoming PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Idaho

Forth railway bridge opens - took six years to build

Indian Territory Organized

Oklahoma Territory Organized

Washington

Length of a metre defined

Montana

Canadian Pacific Railway completed from coast to coast

Children's charity NSPCC launched in London

Benjamin Harrison

Eiffel Tower completed (to mark centenary of French Revolution)

Benjamin Harrison

South Dakota

North Dakota

Dock Strike - docker's won their 'Docker's Tanner' 6 old pennies

Celluloid film produced

Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act

Sir James Dewar and Sir Frederick Abel co-invent Cordite - a type of smokeless gunpowder

Joshua Pusey invents the matchbook

Football League formed

First box camera - George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and receives a patent for his camera which uses roll film

Dunlop invents pneumatic tyre

County Councils set up in Britain

Jack the Ripper active in east London during the latter half of the year

Convention of Constantinople guarantees free maritime passage through Suez Canal in war and peace

Voting rights extended

John Boyd Dunlop patents a commercially successful pneumatic tire

Nikola Tesla invents the AC motor and transformer

Marvin Stone patents the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws

Coal mine explosion in Nanaimo, BC

Daimler produces a four-wheeled motor car

German, Heinrich Hertz invents radar

Rowell Hodge patents barbed wire

Emile Berliner invents the gramophone

F.E. Muller and Adolph Fick invent the first wearable contact lenses

Putney Bridge opens in London

Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invents a carbonated beverage later named 'Coca-Cola'

Louis Riel hanged PROBLEM: start is > earliestEnd, start is > end

Mersey railway (under Mersey) opened by Prince of Wales

Gottlieb Daimler builds the world's first four-wheeled motor vehicle

John Pemberton invents Coca Cola

Josephine Cochrane invents the dishwasher

First electric tramcar used at Blackpool

The first train runs through the Severn Tunnel

Canadian Pacific Railway Completed

Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland

First UK cremation in modern times took place at Woking

Canadian Pacific Railway completed

Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle

Eastman makes first coated photographic paper

Carl Benz builds the 'Motorwagen', a single-cylinder motor car

Karl Benz invents the first practical automobile to be powered by an internal-combustion engine

Harim Maxim invents the machine gun

Gottlieb Daimler invents the first gas-engined motorcycle

Chester A. Arthur

Chester A. Arthur

Chinese build railroad

Wyoming Territory Organized

Montana Territory Organized

Arizona Territory Organized

Idaho Territory Organized

South Dakota Territory Organized

North Dakota Territory Organized

Washington Territory Organized

New Mexico Territory Organized

Utah Territory Organized

Victoria

Immigrants quarantined at Grosse Isle

Indian Wars

Regular series of wills starts in Prerogative Court of Canterbury