Hanover to Windsor 1714 - Present

George the First (1714-1727)

1714: The Admiralty put up a £20,000 reward for anyone who can accurately chart longitude.

1715: Birth of “Capability” Brown.
Jacobite Rebellion (known as the ’15) to install , James Edward Stuart, the Old Pretender onto the throne. The Battle of Sherifmuir on the 13th November is indecisive but the Earl of Mar  surrenders at Preston due to lack of support.

1718: Birth of Thomas Chippendale on the 5th June.

1719: Daniel Defoe publishes “Robinson Crusoe”.

1720: The South Sea Bubble.
Opening of the Haymarket Theatre in London.
Edmond Halley is appointed Astronomer Royal.
Birth of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” on the 31st December.

1721: Robert Walpole becomes first “Prime Minister”.

1722: Death of the Duke of Marlborough on the 16th June.
Daniel Defoe publishes “Moll Flanders”.
Francis Atterbury’s Plot to restore the Old Pretender is discovered and quashed.

1723: Death of Sir Christopher Wren on the 25th February.
Birth of Adam Smith on the 5th June.
Birth of Joshua Reynolds on the 16th July.
1724: Birth of George Stubbs on the 24th August.
1725:Birth of Robert Clive on the 29th September.
John Harrison finishes the first of his precision clocks.
Building of Richard Boyle’s Chiswick House in the Palladian style.
Guy’s Hospital in London is founded.

1726: Jonathan Swift publishes “Gulliver’s Travels”.

1727: Birth of James Wolfe on the 2nd January.
Death of Sir Isaac Newton on the 20th March.
Birth of Thomas Gainsborough on the 14th May.

George the Second (1727-1760)

1728: John Wesley ordained as a priest and leads the Oxford Group of Methodists with his brother Charles.
Birth of Robert Adam on the 3rd July.
Birth of Matthew Boulton on the 3rd September.
Birth of Captain Cook on the 27th October.

1729: Start of the Methodist Movement in Oxford.

1730: Birth of Josiah Wedgewood on the 12th July.
Birth of Oliver Goldsmith on the 12th November
Henry Fielding writes “Tom Thumb”.

1731: Death of Daniel Defoe on the 24th April.

1732: Birth of Richard Arkwright on the 23rd December.
William Hogarth completes his paintings “The Harlot’s Progress”.
Opening of Covent Garden Opera House.

1733: Jethro Tull writes “Horse Hoing Husbandry”.
Birth of Joseph Priestley on the 13th March.

1734: Death of Rob Roy MacGregor on the 28th December.

1735: William Hogarth completes his paintings “The Rake’s Progress”.
10 Downing Street becomes the residence of the First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister.

1736: Birth of James Watt on the 19th January.
John Harrison demonstrates the H1 chronometer.
Nicholas Hawksmoor designs Westminster Bridge.
Death of Nicholas Hawksmoor on the 24th March.

1739: John Wesley founded his first Methodist Chapel at Bristol.
Highwayman Dick Turpin hanged for murder at York.

1739-48: The War of Jenkin’s ear. Britain and UK conflict over Caribbean trading.

1740: William Hogarth paints”The Shrimp Girl”.
Thomas Arne wrote “The Masque of Althred” which includes “Rule Britannia”.

1740-48: War of the Austrian Succession.

1741: Foundation of the Foundling Hospital by Captain  Thomas Coram.
John Harrison has the H2 chronometer ready.
Handel writes “The Messiah” in his home near Oxford Street, London.

1742: Opening of the first cotton factories in Birmingham and Northampton.

1743: William Hogarth completes his paintings called “Marriage a la Mode.

1745: Bonnie Prince Charlie left France and lands on the Hebridean Island of Eriskay and then raises his standard at Glenfinnan.
Battle of Prestonpans on 21st September.
Thomas Arne performs “God Save the King” for the first time.

1746: Bonnie Prince Charlie is defeated at  the Battle of Culloden on 16th April.

1748:  First Mail Coach service.

1749:  Birth of Charles James Fox on the 24th January.
Henry Fielding forms the “Bow Street Runners” an early police force.
Birth of Edmund Jenner on the 17th May.

1750: Foundation of the Jockey Club.
John Baskerville begins to experiment with papermaking and type founding.

1751: “Capability” Brown sets up his gardening. business and begins work at Croome Park, Worcestershire.
William Hogarth paints “Beer Street” and “Gin Lane.
Passing of the Gin Act.

1752:  Britain adopts the Cabinet Government system for the first time.
The Gregorian Calendar is brought in officially and January 1st becomes New Year’s Day.

1753: Foundation of the British Museum Library

1754: Foundation of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club.
Birth of William Bligh  on the 9th September.
Thomas Chippendale publishes “Gentleman and Cabinet-Makers Director”.

1755: Birth of Josiah Spode on the 8th May.
Samuel Johnson publishes the Dictionary of the English Language.

1756-63: Seven Years War.
122 Britons die in “The Black Hole of Calcutta”on 20th July 1756.

1757: The Battle of Plassey on the 23rd June.
Birth of Thomas Telford on the 9th August.
Birth of William Blake on the 28th November.

1758: Birth of Lord Nelson on the 29th September.

1759: Birth of Robert Burns on the 25th January.
Birth of Mary Wollstonecraft on the 27th April.
Birth of William Pitt the Younger on the 28th May.
Birth of William Wilberforce on the 24th August.
Death of James Wolfe at Quebec on the 13th September.
James Brindley begins the construction of the Bridgewater Canal.

George the Third  (1760-1820)

1760: Turnpikes established on British roads.
Matthew Boulton begins manufacturing Sheffield silver plate.
Opening of Kew Gardens.

1761: Matthew Boulton begins building the Soho Manufactory.
John Harrison’s H4 model proved to be the most accurate chronometer.

1763: Josiah Wedgwood patents his cream ware which became known as Queen’s Ware.
At the Treaty of Paris France agreed to move out of Canada.

1764: Birth of Fletcher Christian.
Death of William Hogarth on the 26th October.
“Capability” Brown becomes Surveyor to His Majesty’s Gardens and Waters at Hampton Court Palace.

1765: James Watt fits the Newcomen Engine with a separate condenser to increase its power.

1766: Foundation of the Lunar Society which meets at Matthew Boulton’s house.
Joseph Priestley writes the ”History and Present State of Electricity”.
Birth of Thomas Malthus on the 17th February.
Birth of John Dalton on the 6th September.
Henry Cavendish discovers the properties of Hydrogen, then known as “dephlogisticated air”.

1768: Foundation of the Royal Academy of Arts by Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough.
Joseph Priestley’s work “Essay on Government” published which inspired Thomas Jefferson with ideas for the American Declaration of Independence.

1769: First patent between Matthew Boulton and James Watt for a steam engine. Josiah Wedgwood opens the Etruria factory.

1769-70: Charting of New Zealand by Captain James Cook.
Birth of the Duke of Wellington on the 1st May.

1770: Birth of William Wordsworth on the 7th April.

1771: Richard Arkwright sets up a factory powered by water at Cromford in Derbyshire. Birth of Richard Trevithick on the 13th April.
Birth of Walter Scott on the 15th August.
The Falkland Islands are given to Britain by Spain.

1772: Birth of Samuel Taylor Coleridge on the 21st October.
Charles James Fox promoted to become Lord of the Treasury.
King George the Third tested John Harrison’s H5 chronometer.
Warren Hastings is appointed the first Governor General of India.

1773: At The Boston Tea Party on 16th December radical colonists disguised as Native Americans board British Ships and throw the cargo into the sea as a protest against taxation.
Opening of the Birmingham Assay Office aids Matthew Boulton.

1774: Joseph Priestley discovers Oxygen.

1775:  Richard Arkwright patents his carding engine machinery.
Birth of Jane Austen on the 16th December

1775-1783: Wars of the American Revolution against Britain.

1776: United States of America sign Declaration of Independence see The Sussex Declaration.
Adam Smith writes “The Wealth of Nations”.
Birth of John Constable on the 11th June.

1777: Josiah Wedgwood introduces Jasper ware.
In America British forces win the Battle of Brandywine Creek allowing Washington’s colonial army to escape.

1779:  Building of the world’s first Ironbridge.
Death of Captain Cook on the 14th February.
Death of Thomas Chippendale in November.

1780: Birth of Elizabeth Fry on the 21st May.
The Derby is run for the first time.

1781: Birth of George Stephenson on the 9th June.
George Stubbs is elected a member of the Royal Academy.
Battle of Yorktown in America on 9th October.

1783: Tyburn Hill last used as a place of public execution in London.
James Watt calculates the unit of Horse Power.
Death of “Capability” Brown on the 6th February.

1784: First Mail coach runs from Bristol to London.
Death of Samuel Johnson on the 13th December.
Invention of shrapnel by British Lieutenant Henry Shrapnel.

1787: Thomas Telford is made the Surveyor of Shropshire.
Foundation of Marylebone Cricket Club.

1788: Birth of Lord Byron on the 22nd January.
Death of “Bonnie Prince Charlie” on the 31st January.
Birth of Robert Peel on the 5th February.
Death of William Pitt, The Elder on the 11th May.
Death of Thomas Gainsborough on the 2nd August.

1789: French Revolution.

1791:  Foundation of the Ordnance Survey.
Birmingham Riots against the dissenting Joseph Priestley take place between 14-17th July.

1792:  Birth of Percy Shelley on the 4th August.
Birth of Charles Babbage on the 26th December.
Coal gas is used for the first time in lighting.

1793: William Blake publishes “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell”.
John Dalton writes “Meteorological Observations and Essays”.
The French Republic declares war on Britain

1794: William Blake publishes “Songs of Experience”.
Joseph Priestley emigrates to America and founds the first Unitarian church there.

1795: Formation of the Poor Law.
Death of Josiah Wedgwood on the 3rd January.
Birth of John Keats on the 31st October.
Robert Burns writes “For a’ That and a’ That”.
Jane Austen writes the first versions of “Northanger Abbey”, “Sense and Sensibility” and “Pride and Prejudice”.

1796: Death of Robert Burns on the 21st July.

1797:  Mutiny in the Navy at Spithead on 15th April.
Matthew Boulton is given a contract to make copper coinage at Soho Manufactory by the Royal Mint.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge begins writing “The Ancient Mariner”.
Birth of Mary Shelley on the 30th August.

1798: William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge complete the “Lyrical Ballads” and Coleridge writes “Kubla Khan”.
William Pitt the Younger brings in Income Tax.
The Battle of the Nile on 1st August.
Thomas Malthus writes “Essays on the Principle of Population”.

1799: Humphrey Davy writes “Researches Chemical and Physical”.

George the Third (1760-1820)

1800:  Humphry Davy realises the effects on chemicals of electricity.
Britain takes over Malta.

1801: The Union of Great Britain and Ireland.
First National Census based on Thomas Malthus’s theories.
Horatio Nelson is victorious at the Battle of Copenhagen on 2nd April.

1802: Factory Act limiting child labour is brought in.
Humphry Davy publishes a paper entitled “An Account of a Method of Copying Paintings on Glass and Making Profiles, by the Agency of Light Upon Nitrates of Silver”.
J.M.W. Turner is elected a Member of the Royal Academy.
Thomas Wedgwood, the son of Josiah Wedgwood, successfully records “photographic” images on paper for the first time.

1803:  John Dalton advanced his idea of atomic theory based upon study of atmospheric gases.
Richard Trevithick builds his London Road Locomotive which runs between Leather Lane and Paddington via Oxford Street.

1804:  William Wordsworth writes “Ode: Imitations of Immortality”.
Birth of Benjamin Disraeli on the 21st December.
The Royal Horticultural Society is first founded.

1805: Death of Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21st October.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge is appointed the Acting Public Secretary in Malta.

1806: Death of William Pitt the Younger on the 23rd January.
William Cobbett begins the “Record of Parliamentary Debate” which was later taken over by Luke Hansard and is now known simply as Hansard.
Birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the 9th April.
Duke of Wellington is elected as the Member of Parliament.
The Beaufort Scale of wind speeds is devised by Sir Francis Beaufort.

1807: Slavery is abolished in the British Empire.
Humphry Davy manufactures Potassium and Sodium.

1808: John Dalton publishes “A New System of Chemical Philosophy”
Humphry Davy discovers Magnesium, Calcium, Barium and Strontium.
The Duke of Wellington is victorious at the Battle at Vimeiro on the 21 August.

1808-1814: The Peninsula War.

1809: Birth of Charles Darwin on the 12th February.
Birth of Alfred Lord Tennyson on the 6th August.
Death of Matthew Boulton on the 17th August.
Birth of William Ewart Gladstone on the 29th December.
The British army under Sir John Moore defeat the French at the Battle of Corunna in the Peninsular War.

1811: Birth of William Makepeace Thackeray on the 18th July.
Luddite machine breaking riots in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire take place between March and the following January.
Jane Austen revises and publishes “Sense and Sensibility”.
Josiah Spode introduces the “Blue Rome” Plate.

1812: Birth of Charles Dickens on the 7th February. Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow.
Birth of Robert Browning on the 7th May.
Wellington wins the Battle of Salamanca in Spain on 22nd July.

1812-1814: British-American War.
The Elgin Marbles are first brought to Britain from Athens.

1813: Birth of Henry Bessemer on the 19th January.
Jane Austen publishes “Pride and Prejudice”.
Battle of Vittoria in Spain on the 21st June.
Elizabeth Fry appalled by a visit to Newgate Prison starts a career of prison reform.
Walter Scott refuses the title of Poet Laureate and recommends Robert Southey.

1814:  George Stephenson builds his first engine the eight-ton “Blucher”.
Establishment of Lord’s Cricket Ground.
Humphry Davy and George Stephenson independently invent a miners safety lamp.

1815: Battle of Waterloo on the 18th of June ends the Napoleonic Wars. The Duke of Wellington is victorious with the help of the Prussian General Blucher.
Richard Trevithick invents the screw propeller.

1816: Birth of Charlotte Bronte on the 21st April after her father is appointed perpetual curate at Haworth.
Jane Austen publishes “Emma”.
Percy and Mary Shelley and Lord Byron invent horror stories in Switzerland giving rise to Frankenstein.
Josiah Spode introduces the Blue Italian Plates.

1817: Death of Jane Austen on the 18th July.
Death of William Bligh on the 7th December.
Walter Scott writes “Rob Roy”.

1818: Elizabeth Fry is the first woman to speak to a Parliamentary Commission.
Birth of Emily Bronte on the 30th July.
Richard Trevithick creates the first steam boat.

1819:  Walter Scott writes “Ivanhoe”.
The Peterloo Massacre takes place on the 16th August.
Death of James Watt on the 25th August.
Birth of George Eliot on the 22nd November.
Robert Owen’s campaigns finally get the Factory Act passed which said that it was illegal to employ children under nine years old.
Thomas Telford builds the bridge over the Menai Straits.

George the Fourth  (1820-1830)

1820: Birth of Anne Bronte on the 17th January.
John Constable paints “The Haywain”.
William Blake writes “Jerusalem”.
Birth of Florence Nightingale on the 12th May.
The Cato Street Conspiracy plot to murder the Cabinet is uncovered.

1821:  George Stephenson surveys the proposed railway from Stockton to Darlington.
The reproduction of sound is proved to be possible by Sir Charles Wheatstone.

1822: Death of Percy Shelley by drowning on the 8th July.
Robert Peel is appointed as Home Secretary.
The first dinosaur fossil is discovered in West Sussex.

1823: Completion of Thomas Telford’s Caledonian Canal from Loch Ness to Fort William.

1824: The National Gallery Founded.
Thomas Telford designs St. Katherine’s Docks in London.
Birth of Wilkie Collins on the 8th January.
Death of Lord Byron on the 19th April.

1825: The first passenger train service in the world runs from Stockton to Darlington.
Horse drawn buses operate for the first time in London.

1826: Opening of Thomas Telford’s suspension bridge across the Menai Straits.

1827:  Death of Josiah Spode on the 16th July.
John Loudon McAdam is appointed Surveyor General of Metropolitan Roads in Great Britain.
Elizabeth Fry argues against capital punishment for women.
Death of William Blake on the 12th August.

1828: Birth of Dante Gabriel Rossetti on the 12th May.
The Duke of Wellington becomes Prime Minister.

1829: Birth of William Booth on the 12th April.
Death of Sir Humphry Davy on the 29th May.
Birth of John Everett Millais on the June.
Robert Peel passes the Metropolitan Police Act.
William Burke is hanged and William Hare goes free after the Burke and Hare body snatching crimes in Edinburgh.

William the Fourth (1830-1837)

1830: Formation of the Conservative Party from the Tories.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel is inspired to build railways at the Rainhill Trials when George Stephenson’s “Rocket” wins the battle of the locomotives.
Charles Lyell publishes “The Principles of Geology”.

1831:  Isambard Kingdom Brunel begins construction of the Clifton suspension bridge.

1832: Alfred Lord Tennyson writes “The Lady of Shallot”.
Birth of Lewis Carroll on the 27th January.
Passing of the Great Reform Act.

1833: Passing of the Slavery Abolition Act.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel is appointed engineer of the Great Western Railway Company uses the controversial 7-Foot Gauge. He begins building the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.
Death of William Wilberforce on the 29th July.

1834: Transportation of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Houses of parliament burn down.
Charles Babbage designs the Difference Engine, the first computer and publishes “Economy of Machines”.
Birth of William Morris on the 24th March.
The Hansom cab is first patented.

1835:  Foundation of the British Geological Survey.

1836:  Charles Barry wins the commission to rebuild the Houses of Parliament.
Invention of the screw propeller by Sir Francis Smith.

Queen Victoria (1837-1901)

1837: Death of John Constable on the 31st March.
The first telegraph message is sent between the new Camden Town and Euston stations.
The Queen lives in Buckingham Palace for the first time.

1838:  Grace Darling rows out to save survivors from the sinking steamship “Forfarshire”   on the 7th September.
The First Afghan War breaks out as Britain tries to stop Russian influence in the area.
The National Gallery opens for the first time.

1839: Vulcanisation of rubber first invented.
Birth of George Cadbury on the 19th September.
Charles Dickens writes “Nicholas Nickleby”.
Invention of the self-propelled bicycle by Kirkpatrick Macmillan.

1840:  William Armstrong produces an improved hydraulic engine.
Charles Darwin writes “Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle”.
Elizabeth Fry opens a new school for nurses which was to inspire Florence Nightingale.
Birth of Thomas Hardy on the 2nd June.
The Penny Postal service is introduced with the advent of the Penny Black postage stamp.

1841: Isambard Kingdom Brunel opens his railway between London and Bristol.
The first Census is held.

1842:  William Armstrong invents an apparatus for producing electricity from steam.
Robert Peel introduces the Mines Act which forbids the employment of women and children underground.
The Treaty of Nanking ends the Opium ‘Wars with China.

1843:  Isambard Kingdom Brunel launches SS “Great Britain”.

1845:  John Franklin begins his third attempt to find the North West Passage around Canada and dies in the process in 1847.
Irish potato famine.

1846: Robert Browning elopes with Elizabeth Barrett to Italy.
Robert Peel repeals the Corn Laws.

1847: Birth of Alexander Graham Bell on the 3rd March.
Charlotte Bronte publishes “Jane Eyre”, Emily Bronte publishes “Wuthering Heights” and Anne Bronte publishes “Agnes Grey”.
William Makepeace Thackeray writes Vanity Fair.

1848: Birth of W. G. Grace on the 18th July.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel starts work on the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash.
Death of Emily Bronte on the 19th December.

1850: Death of William Wordsworth on the 23rd April.
Birth of Robert Louis Stevenson on the 13th November.
Charles Dickens writes “David Copperfield”.
Alfred Lord Tennyson writes “In Memoriam” and becomes Poet Laureate.
Death of Robert Peel on the 2nd July.
Opening of the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits.

1851: William Kelvin forms the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The Great Exhibition is held at The Crystal Palace.
Death of Mary Shelley on the 1st February.
Death of J.M.W. Turner on the 19th December .

1852: Completion of the new House of Commons.
Death of the Duke of Wellington on the 14th September.
The first Music Halls appear as Charles Morton opens “The Canterbury” in London.

1854: Birth of Oscar Wilde on the 16th October.
Battle of Balaclava in the Crimea on the 25th October. Florence Nightingale goes to nurse the wounded.

1854-56: Crimean War.

1855: Death of Charlotte Bronte on the 31st March.
Henry Bessemer patents his Bessemer process smelting cast iron.
James Clerk Maxwell publishes “On Faraday’s lines of Force”.
David Livingstone discovers the Victoria Falls in Africa.

1856: Birth of George Bernard Shaw on the 26th July.
Queen Victoria first awards the Victoria Cross medal for Valour.

1857: Birth of Edward Elgar on the 2nd June.
William Morris helps to paint the frescoes at the Oxford Union.

1857-9: The Indian Mutiny.

1859:  Birth of Arthur Conan Doyle on the 22nd May.
Death of Isambard Kingdom Brunel on the 15th September.
Edward Fitzgerald publishes an anonymous copy of his translation of the “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”.
Charles Darwin completes “The Origin of Species”.
Florence Nightingale publishes “Notes on Nursing”.
Alfred Lord Tennyson writes “The Idylls of the King”.

1860: First Open Golf Championship, held at Prestwick.
Wilkie Collins writes “The Woman in White.
George Eliot publishes “The Mill on the Floss”.
Thomas Henry Huxley defends Darwin’s “Origin of Species” in The Times.

1861: Charles Dickens writes “Great Expectations”.
Death of Queen Victoria’s Consort Prince Albert.
Daily weather forecasts are first given.

1862: William Morris’s firm exhibit at the International Exhibition.
The Companies Act first introduces limited liability companies.

1863: Birth of David Lloyd George on the 17th January.
Formation of the Football Association.
Opening of the London Underground.

1865: Lewis Carroll publishes “Alice in Wonderland”.
Birth of Edith Cavell on the 4th December.
Birth of Rudyard Kipling on the 30th December

1866: Birth of Beatrix Potter on the 28th July.
George Cadbury’s company becomes the first to sell cocoa as a drink.
Birth of H. G. Wells on the 21st September.
Robert Whitehead invents the torpedo.

1867:  Benjamin Disraeli proposes new Reform Act which gives the vote to every male.
William Kelvin writes “The Treatise on Natural Philosophy”.
Edwin Landseer unveils the lions around the base of Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.
Joseph Lister introduces modern antiseptic surgery.

1868: Trades Union Congress formed.
Birth of Scott of the Antarctic on the 6th June.
Birth of Charles Rennie Mackintosh on the 7th June.
Birth of Emmeline Pankhurst on the 14th July.

1869: R.D. Blackmore writes “Lorna Doone”€.
Opening of the Suez Canal on the 17th November.

1870: Death of Charles Dickens on the 9th June.
W.E. Gladstone passes The Education Act was which set up school boards in Britain and made primary school education compulsory.

1871: Death of Charles Babbage on the 18th October.
George Eliot publishes “Middlemarch”.
Charles Darwin publishes “The Descent of Man”.
Britain takes over the diamond mines at Kimberley, South Africa.

1872: First FA Cup final in football.
Birth of Bertrand Russell on the 18th May.
Secret Ballots are first introduced by the Ballot Act.

1873:  James Clerk Maxwell publishes “Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism”.

1874: Birth of William Somerset Maugham on the 25th January.
Thomas Hardy writes “Far From the Madding Crowd”.
Birth of Ernest Shackleton on the 15th February.
Birth of Gustav Holst on the 21st September.
Birth of Winston Churchill on the 30th November.

1876: Adoption of the Plimsoll Line for shipping.
Alexander Graham Bell takes out a Patent on the telephone.

1877: First Wimbledon Tennis Championships.
Birth of Lord Nuffield on the 10th October.
General Charles Gordon is appointed as Governor of the Sudan.
Australia win the first ever cricket Test Match between England and Australia.

1878:  W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan write “HMS Pinafore”.
Sir Joseph Swann invents the electric filament lamp.

1879: The Zulu War.

George Cadbury sets up the Bournville factory village.
W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan write “The Pirates of Penzance”.
James Clerk Maxwell writes “Electrical Researches of Henry Cavendish”.
John Henry Newman becomes a Cardinal.

1880: Birth of Dame Christabel Pankhurst on the 22nd September.
Death of George Eliot on the 22nd December.
W.G. Grace scores the first ever Test Century at cricket.
Greenwich Mean Time is adopted by the whole of Britain.

1880-1: First Boer War in South Africa.

1881: Oscar Wilde asked by Richard D’Oyly Carte to tour America.
Death of Benjamin Disraeli on the 19th April.
Birth of Alexander Fleming on the 6th August.

1882: Birth of A. A. Milne on the 18th January.
Birth of Virginia Woolf on the 25th January.
Death of Charles Darwin on the 19th April.
The Married Women Act allows women to buy and sell their own property.

1884: William Morris becomes the leader of the Socialist League.
George Bernard Shaw joins the new Fabian Society, the forerunner of the Labour Party.
The Greenwich Meridian is adopted internationally as Zero Longitude or the Prime Meridian.

1885:  Birth of Malcolm Campbell on the 11th March.
Birth of D.H. Lawrence on the 11th September.
The vacuum flask is invented by Sir James Dewar.

1886: Birth of Siegfried Sassoon on the 8th September.
Robert Louis Stevenson serialises “Kidnapped” and publishes “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”.

1887: Birth of Barnes Wallis on the 26th September.
Arthur Conan Doyle publishes the first Sherlock Holmes story “A Study in Scarlet”.
Birth of L.S. Lowry on the 1st November.

1888: Lewis Carroll publishes “Curiosa Mathematica”.
Birth of John Logie Baird on the 13th August.
Birth of T.E. Lawrence on the 15th August.
Birth of T. S. Eliot on the 26th September.
Jack the Ripper commits his murders in Whitechapel, London.
The Football League is created.

1889: Completion of the Forth Railway Bridge near Edinburgh.

1890: The Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland is opened.

1891: Arthur Conan Doyle publishes the first Sherlock Holmes stories.
William Morris founds The Kelmscott Press and refuses to become Poet Laureate.
Oscar Wilde writes “The Picture of Dorian Gray”.

1892: Birth of J.R.R. Tolkien on the 3rd January.
Oscar Wilde writes “Lady Windermere’s Fan”.
Sir Alfred Gilbert designs “Eros” in Piccadilly Circus.

1893: Birth of Ivor Novello on the 15th January.
Oliver Lodge discredited the ether theory opening the way for Einstein.
Formation of the Labour Party from a Fabian Society conference.
Beatrix Potter writes the first Peter Rabbit story.

1894: Birth of Aldous Huxley on the 26th July.
Rudyard Kipling writes “The Jungle Book”.
Death of Robert Louis Stevenson on the 3rd December.
Aubrey Beardsley becomes Art Editor and illustrator of “The Yellow Book”. His illustrations for Oscar Wilde’s “Salome” achieve national notoriety.
Oliver Lodge becomes the first man to send a message via radio signals. He also invents the spark plug for motor cars. The first motor car is seen in London.
George Bernard Shaw writes “Arms and the Man”.
The first Marks and Spencer’s store opens in Manchester.

1895: First Promenade Concerts in London.
Thomas Hardy writes “Jude the Obscure”.
Oscar Wilde writes “The Importance of Being Earnest” and sues the Marquess of Queensbury for criminal libel but is himself finally sent to jail.
H.G. Wells writes “The Time Machine”.
Foundation of the National Trust by Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley a friend of Beatrix Potter.

1895-6: The Jameson Raids in South Africa.

1896:  Herbert Austin unveils the prototype of his second motor car at Crystal Palace.
Arnold Bennett becomes the Editor of “Woman” magazine.

1897: Opening of the Tate Gallery.
George Cadbury starts production of milk chocolate.
Oscar Wilde released from Reading Gaol.
Oliver Lodge writes “Signaling across Space without Wires”.
Charles Rennie Mackintosh designed the Glasgow School of Art.

1898:  H.G. Wells writes “The War of the Worlds”.
Death of William Ewart Gladstone on the 19th May.
Birth of Henry Moore on the 30th July.

1899: Edward Elgar first performs “The Enigma Variations”.
The Siege of Mafeking in South Africa lasts for 217 days.

1899-1902: The Second Boer War.

1900:  Winston Churchill entered Parliament as a Conservative MP.

Edward the Seventh (1901-1910)

1901: Edward Elgar writes “Pomp and Circumstance” March Number One “Land of Hope and Glory”.
Beatrix Potter publishes “Peter Rabbit”.
Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton sail on the National Antarctic Expedition ship “Discovery” which ventured further south than any other ship.
William Booth successfully gets Bryant and May to stop using phosphorus in matches.
The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, etc all form together to become the Commonwealth of Australia.
The Royal Navy launches its first submarine.

1902: Arthur Conan Doyle publishes”The Hound of the Baskervilles”.
George Cadbury becomes the owner of the Daily News newspaper.
George Bernard Shaw Publishes “Man and Superman”. 
William Fletcher restored Barton Manor

1903: Birth of George Orwell on the 25th June.
Birth of Evelyn Waugh on the 28th October.
Christabel Pankhurst Founds the Women’s Social and Political Union in Manchester.
Warnes take out a patent on Peter Rabbit making him the first soft toy to be mass produced.
Bertrand Russell publishes “The Principles of Mathematics”.

1904: Birth of Graham Greene on the 2nd October.
Earl Russell owns the first car number plate. A1.

1905:  Herbert Austin founds the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge.
George Bernard Shaw publishes “Man and Superman”.
H.M.S. Dreadnought revolutionises battleship design and launches a European scramble for naval supremacy.

1906: Birth of John Betjeman on the 28th August.
John Galsworthy begins the Forsyte Saga novels.

1907:  Birth of Laurence Olivier on the 22nd May.
Rudyard Kipling is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Christabel Pankhurst is arrested in Parliament Square, London on 13th February.
Birth of Frank Whittle on the 1st June.
Death of William Kelvin on the 17th December.
Britain and Russia sign the Anglo-Russian Entente.

1908: E.M. Forster publishes “A Room With a View”.
David Lloyd-George as the Chancellor of the Exchequer introduces Old Age Pensions which are paid the following year.

1909:  Ernest Shackleton is Knighted.
Birth of Francis Bacon on the 28th October.

George the Fifth (1910-1936)

1910: Death of Florence Nightingale on the 13th August.
E.M. Forster publishes “Howard’s End”.

1911:  Ernest Rutherford demonstrates the structure of the atom.

1912: Winston Churchill witnessed the Siege of Sidney Street as Home Secretary.
Robert Falcon Scott finally reaches the South Pole but dies on the return leg on 29th March.
Emmeline Pankhurst is arrested twelve times and serves 30 days in jail.
The liner “Titanic” sinks on her maiden voyage to New York.

1913: Birth of Benjamin Britten on the 22nd November.
D.H. Lawrence publishes “Sons and Lovers”.
Building of the first Morris Oxford car by William Morris, Lord Nuffield.
Emily Wilding Davidson is killed as she throws herself under the King’s horse at the Derby in Epsom.
Establishment of the Cat and Mouse Act against the Suffragettes.
Charlie Chaplin records his first film.
The first Chelsea Flower Show is held.

1914: Beginning of First World War.
Birth of Dylan Thomas on the 27th October.
John Masefield joins the Red Cross.
First Battle of Ypres from October to November.
George Bernard Shaw publishes “Pygmalion”.
The first German bomb falls on London.

1915: Birth of Stanley Matthews on the 1st February.
Second Battle of Ypres from April to May.
John Buchan publishes “The Thirty Nine Steps”.
Execution of Edith Cavell on the 12th October.
Ivor Novello writes “Keep the Home Fires Burning”.
Ernest Shackleton ship “Endurance” gets trapped in ice.
First British Tanks appear on the battlefields.

1916: Third Battle of the Somme. July to November.
Easter Rising in Ireland during April.
T.E. Lawrence involved in the Arab revolt against Turkey.
Bertrand Russell received a fine of £110 for his pacifist views and is dismissed from Cambridge.

1917: Third Battle of Ypres from July to November (commonly known as Passchaendale).
Russian Revolution  overthrows the Tsarist regime.
The Royal Family take the name Windsor.

1918:  End of First World War. The Representation of the People Act gives the vote to Women over 30.
The Royal Air Force is founded.

1919: Augustus John attends the Versailles Peace Conference and paints portraits of delegates.
Siegfried Sassoon publishes “The War Poems”.
Michael Collins starts the Irish Republican Army to fight for a Republic of Ireland.
First crossing of the Atlantic by an airship, the R34.
Nancy Astor becomes the first female Member of Parliament.

1920: Formation of the League of Nations.
Gustav Holst gives first performance of The Planets.
D.H. Lawrence publishes “Women in Love”.

1921: Birth of Donald Campbell on the 23rd March.
David Lloyd-George negotiated with Sinn Fein and conceded the setting up of the Irish Free State.
The Railways Act gives control of the railways to four major companies.

1922:  Herbert Austin unveils the Austin Seven car.
The first radio station is begun.

1923: Thomas Hardy is visited by The Prince of Wales.
Election of the first Labour Government at the General Election with Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister.
The BBC makes the first outside broadcast.

1924: Edward Elgar made Master of the Kings Musick.
Malcolm Campbell sets his first land speed record.
British Empire Exhibition held at Wembley.

1925: Birth of Richard Burton on the 10th November.
D.H. Lawrence writes “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”.
A.A. Milne writes the first Winnie the Pooh stories.
George Bernard Shaw awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Border fixed between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State.

1926: John Logie Baird unveils his first mechanical television.
The General Strike is held in May.
T.E. Lawrence completes the “Seven Pillars of Wisdom”.

1927:  Virginia Woolf  publishes “To the Lighthouse”.
Sir John Reith is created first Director General of the BBC after its Royal Charter.

1928:  Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin by chance.
Henry Moore receives his first public commission for St. James Park Underground Station.
The right to vote covers all women for the first time.
William Cosmo Gordon Lang becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.

1929:  Telephone boxes appear in London.

1930:  Frank Whittle applies to patent the jet engine.
John Masefield becomes Poet Laureate.
Death of Arthur Conan Doyle on the 7th July.
The Airship R101 crashes in France.

1931: Aldous Huxley writes “Brave New World”.
Sir Oswald Mosley forms the British Union of Fascists.

1932: John Galsworthy wins the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The Neutron is discovered by James Chadwick.

1934: Death of Edward Elgar on the 23rd February.
E.M. Forster became the first president of the National Council for Civil Liberties.
Driving tests are introduced for the first time.
Children are given milk at school to improve nutrition.

1935: Stanley Matthews is first picked for England Football team.
Radar is demonstrated by Robert Watson Watt.

Edward the Eighth Abdication (1936)

George the Sixth(1936-1952)

1936:  George Orwell fights in the Spanish Civil War.
J.R.R. Tolkien completes “The Hobbit”.
Jarrow Hunger March.
Opening of Gatwick Airport.

1938: Graham Greene publishes “Brighton Rock”.
The Munich Agreement between Hitler and Neville Chamberlain is signed on 29th September.
An Anglo-Italian agreement is signed.

1939: Stanley Matthews plays in the Berlin Olympic Stadium where England were forced to give the Nazi salute.
The IRA bomb London and Coventry.
Beginning of Second World War.

1940:  Food rationing is introduced.
Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister.
Birth of John Lennon on the 9th October.
The Battle of Britain between the RAF and the Luftwaffe takes place in August and September.

1941: Suicide of Virginia Woolf on the 28th March.
Birth of Bobby Moore on the 12th April.
The German battleship Bismarck is sunk by planes from H.M.S. Ark Royal.

1942:  Malta is awarded the George Cross for heroism.

1943:  Barnes Wallis designs the bouncing bomb for 617 squadron’s Dambusters raid.
Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt meet at Casablanca.

1944: Frank Whittle’s jet engined aircraft the Gloster Meteor flies in combat.
The Allies land at Anzio near Rome in January.
The D-Day invasion of Europe takes place on 6th of June.
The first V1 (Vengeance weapon) rocket bombs land on London and are nicknamed “doodlebugs” or buzz bombs.

1945: Death of David Lloyd George on the 26th March.
End of Second World War.
Formation of the United Nations.
Benjamin Britten’s opera “Peter Grimes” first performed.
George Orwell publishes “Animal Farm”.

1946: Death of John Logie Baird on the 14th June.
Death of H. G. Wells on the 13th August.
Winston Churchill delivers his famous “Iron Curtain” Speech at the beginning of the Cold War.

1947:  Lord Mountbatten is the last Governor General of India as India and Pakistan gain independence.

1948: T.S. Eliot is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Establishment of the National Health Service.
Nationalisation of several industries such as railways, coal and harbours is completed.
The British mandate for Palestine comes to an end and the nation of Israel is born.

1949: Establishment of NATO.
George Orwell publishes “Nineteen Eighty Four”.
Rationing of clothes comes to an end.

1950:  Bertrand Russell is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Britain recognises Communist China.

1950-1953: The Korean War.

1951:  Winston Churchill is elected Prime Minister for second time.
The Festival of Britain is held on London’s South Bank of the river Thames.

Elizabeth the Second (1952-to date)

1952: The De Haviland Comet becomes the first jet airliner in the world.

1953:  Stanley Matthews won an FA Cup winners medal in the so called Matthews final.
James Watson and Francis Crick discover the structure of DNA.

1954: ITV Commercial television is proposed and begins next year.
Roger Bannister completes a mile in under four minutes.

1955: Bertrand Russell releases the Russell-Einstein Manifesto in London calling for nuclear disarmament.
Ruth Ellis is the last woman to be hung in Britain.

1956: The Suez Crisis as Nasser of Egypt nationalist the canal.
Double yellow lines appear for the first time in Slough.
Calder Hall, the world’s first commercial nuclear power station is opened.

1957:  The Jodrell Bank radio telescope begins operating.

1958:  The Munich Air Disaster in which seven Manchester United players die amongst others.

1959: Christopher Cockerell introduces the first Hovercraft capable of crossing the English Channel.
D.H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover” is brought to law on obscenity charges.

1960: European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm.

1961:  John Lennon appears in the debut concert of “The Beatles” at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.
The Farthing ceases to be legal tender.

1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis when Fidel Castro threatens to house Russian nuclear missiles on Cuba.
Graham Hill becomes Formula One World Champion.
L.S. Lowry elected as a Member of the Royal Academy.
Formation of the European Space Agency.
Sir Basil Spence designs Coventry Cathedral.
Anthony Burgess writes “A Clockwork Orange”.

1963:  Laurence Olivier becomes the first director of the National Theatre.
Jim Clark finally becomes  motor racing World Champion.
The Double Agent Kim Philby defects to the Soviet Union.

1964: John Lennon and “The Beatles” tour the United States.
Pirate radio station Radio Caroline begins broadcasting from a ship in the North Sea.

1965: Death of T.S. Eliot on the 4th January.
Death of Sir Winston Churchill on the 24th January.
Death of William Somerset Maugham on the 16th December.
Rhodesia under Ian Smith makes a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain.
Mary Quant designs the mini skirt.
The Post Office Tower opens in London.

1966: Death of Evelyn Waugh on the 12th April.
John Lennon meets Yoko Ono for the first time.
Bobby Moore captains England to World Cup Final victory over West Germany.
Ian Brady and Myra Hindley the “Moors Murderers” are sentenced to life imprisonment.
Anti Vietnam War protestors turn violent outside the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London.
144 people including many schoolchildren are killed in the Aberfan mine tip slippage on 21st of October.

1967: Death of Donald Campbell in a crash at Coniston Water 4th January.
The first colour television broadcasts begin.

1968: Death of Jim Clark on the 7th April.
Enoch Powell delivers his controversial “Rivers of Blood” speech in Birmingham.

1969: First Apollo Moon Landings.
John Lennon sings “Give Peace a Chance”.
The Open University is founded.

1970:  Bernadette Devlin is arrested in Londonderry and riots break out.
The Beatles split up.

1971: John Lennon sings “Imagine”.
Education Secretary Margaret Thatcher abolishes free school milk.

1972: John Betjeman is appointed as the Poet Laureate.
Thousands of Asians from Uganda who have been expelled by Idi Amin arrive in Britain.

1973: Death of J.R.R. Tolkien on the 2nd September.
Britain joins the Common Market (EEC- European Economic Community).

1974: Prime Minister Edward Heath introduces the Three Day Week due to the effects of industrial action.
21 people are killed in Birmingham after the IRA blow up two pubs on the 21st November.

1975:  Death of Graham Hill on the 29th November.
A crash on the London Underground at Moorgate kills 43 people.

1976:  The National Theatre building opens in London.

1977: First commercial flights of the supersonic airliner Concorde between London and New York.
The Yorkshire Ripper commits multiple murders.

1978: The Winter of Discontent occurs due to the number of strikes.
Former Leader of the Liberal Party Jeremy Thorpe goes on trial for conspiracy to murder.

1979:  Bobby Moore is appointed Manager of Oxford City.
Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s first female Prime Minister.

1980:  Death of John Lennon on the 8th December.
The British Olympic Association send athletes to the Moscow Olympics despite Government advice.

1981: The Social Democratic Party is formed by ex-Labour M.P.’s
The Yorkshire Ripper is arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

1982: Falkland Islands Conflict.
The Thames Barrier is operated for the first time.
The Tudor warship the Mary Rose is raised from the seabed.

1983: William Golding wins the Nobel prize for Literature.
The race horse Shergar is stolen.
Breakfast television begins for the first time.

1984: Chatham dockyards close after 400 years of operation.

1985: End of the Miner’s strike.
The first mobile phone call is made by comedian Ernie Wise.

1986: Radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster reaches Britain.

1987: Terry Waite, envoy to the Archbishop of Canterbury, is kidnapped in Beirut.
The Docklands Light Railway is opened.

1988: Pan Am flight 103 is blown up over Lockerbie by the Libyans.

1989: Death of Laurence Olivier on the 11th July.
A Fatwah death sentence is put out by the Ayatollah Khomenei on Salman Rushdie for his writing of the “Satanic Verses”.

1990: Sterling joins the Exchange Rate Mechanism.
An IRA Bomb explodes at the London Stock Exchange.

1991: First Gulf War after Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait.
The IRA launch a mortar attack against 10 Downing Street.

1992: The Maastricht Treaty forms the European Union.
On Black Wednesday Sterling is removed from the Exchange Rate Mechanism.

1993: Death of Bobby Moore on the 24th February.

1994: The Channel Tunnel between Britain and France is officially opened.
The UK National Lottery begins.
Fred and Rose West are charged with multiple murders.

1995: Collapse of Barings Bank after losses from rogue trader Nick Leeson.

1996: Thomas Hamilton kills 16 children in Dunblane.

1997: Formation of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
Death of Diana Princess of Wales in a car crash in Paris causes an outpouring of national grief.
Return of Hong Kong from Britain to China.

1998: Signing of the Good Friday Agreement between Britain and the Irish Republic.

1999: Introduction of the national minimum wage.
Elections to the new Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assemblies are held.

2000: Death of Stanley Matthews on the 23rd February.
Opening of Tate Modern art Gallery.

2001: Foot and Mouth disease breaks out in Britain.

2002: The Commonwealth Games are held in ‘Manchester.

2003: The Government issues a Dossier that states that Iraq and Saddam Hussein has weapons of Mass Destruction.
The Second Gulf War begins.

2004: Voters reject a Regional Assembly in the North East of England.

2005: The Hunting Act, banning hunting with dogs comes into force.

2006: Saddam Hussein sentenced to death by hanging by an Iraqi court.

2007: The Bank Of England bails out Northern Rock the 4th largest mortgage company.

2008: The Large Hadron Collider experiment inaugurated in Switzerland to establish origins of the Big Bang.

2009: The World Health Organisation declares H1N1 influenza as a global pandemic. (“swine flu”).

2010: British Petroleum’s oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and spilling 250 million gallons of oil into the sea.

2011: A major earthquake struck Japan triggering a massive tsunami which left about 20,000 dead and damaged the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.

2012: The cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground on the island of Giglio, Italy killing 32 people.

2013: Pope Benedict XVI unexpectedly announced his resignation due to poor health.

2014: The Ebola virus begins killing people in West Africa.

2015:  The United Nations Climate Change Conference is held in Paris in November.

2016: Great Britain votes to leave the European Union in a referendum on June 23rd.

2017: Donald Trump is sworn in as the President of the United States of America.
Russia is banned form entering the Winter Olympics due to doping of athletes.

2018: The Yellow Vest movement against the high cost of living in France turns into violent riots. The Arc de Triomphe is vandalised and numerous other tourist sites are closed.