Wales (or Cymru in Welsh) is a mountainous country on the western side of

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Thousands of years ago, Great Britain was joined to Europe and was covered with ice. About 15,000 years ago, the weather became warmer. The ice melted and the sea level rose...

1. Prehistoric Britain	BC
2. Roman Britain	43 AD	®
3. Anglo Saxon Britain	450	®
4. Viking Britain	793	®
5. Medieval Britain	1066	®
6. Tudor Britain	1485	®
7. Stuart Britain	1603	®
8. Georgian Britain	1714	®
9. Victorian Britain	1837	®
10. Modern Britain	1900	®

Prehistoric Britain

6500	Seas rise, cutting Britain off from mainland Europe
3000	New Stone Age begins: farming people arrive from Europe; First stone circles erected
2100	Bronze Age begins
2150	People learn to make bronze weapons and tools
2500	Stonehenge built
1650	Trade routes begin to form
1200	Small Villages are first formed
750	Iron Age begins: iron replaces bronze as most useful metal Population about 150,000
500	The Celtic people arrive from Central Europe; The Celts were farmers and lived in small village groups in the centre of their arable fields; They were also warlike people; The Celts fought against the people of Britain and other Celtic tribes.

Roman Britain

The Romans were the first to invade Britain nearly 2000 years ago. The Roman Empire made its mark on Britain, and even today, the ruins of Roman buildings, forts, roads, and baths can be found all over Britain. Britain was part of the Roman Empire for almost 400 years! By the time the Roman armies left around 410 AD, they had established medical practice, a language of administration and law and had created great public buildings and roads. Many English words are derived from the latin language of the Romans.

	Britain		Abroad
55 BC	Julius Caesar heads first Roman Invasion but later withdraws	55 BC
AD		AD
30		30	Jesus Crucified
43	Romans invade and Britain becomes part of the Roman Empire	43
50	London Founded	50
61	Boadicea leads the Iceni in revolt against the Romans	61
70	Romans conquer Wales and the North	70
80		80	The Colosseum of Rome completed
122 - 128	Emperor Hadrian builds a wall on the Scottish Border	122 - 128
140	Romans conquer Scotland	140
209	St Alban becomes the 1st Christian martyr	209
306	Constantine the Great declared Emperor at York	306
350	The Picts and Scots attack the border	350
382		382	St Jerome: Vulgate Translation of the Bible
401 - 410	The Romans withdraw from Britain: Anglo Saxons migrants begin to Settle	401 - 410

Anglo-Saxon Britain

The Roman army left Britain about AD 410. When they had gone there was no strong army to defend Britain, and tribes called the Anglo, Saxon, and Jute (the Anglo-Saxons) invaded. They left their homelands in (today) northern Germany, Denmark and northern Holland and rowed across the North Sea in wooden boats. The Anglo-Saxons ruled most of Britain but never conquered Cornwall in the south-west, Wales in the west, or Scotland in the north. They divided the country into kingdoms. Meantime missionaries spread Christianity across southern Britain.

	Britain		Abroad
450 - 750	Invasion of the Jutes from Jutland, Angles from South of Denmark and Saxons from Germany. Britain is divided up into the Seven Kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, Wessex, Essex, Sussex and Kent.	450 - 750
433		433	Attila becomes the king of the Huns
450	Saxons Hengist and Horsa settle in Kent.	450
460	St Patrick returns to convert Ireland	460
476		476	End of the Roman Empire
510	The Battle of Mount Badon: British (Celtic) victory over the Saxons	510
597	St Augustine brings Christianity to Britain from Rome and becomes the 1st Archbishop of Canterbury	597
610		610	Muhammad starts his prophetic work
617	Northumbria becomes the Supreme Kingdom	617
779	Mercia becomes the Supreme Kingdom and King Offa builds a Dyke along the Welsh Border to keep the Welsh out	779

Viking Britain

The Viking Age in Britain began about 1,200 years ago in the 8th Century AD and lasted for 300 years.

National Statistics, UK 2002, The Official Yearbook of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

	Britain		Abroad
793	First invasion by the Vikings	793
821	Wessex becomes the Supreme Kingdom	821
866 - 877	Invasion of the Great Danish (Viking) Army.	866 - 877
867	The Vikings take Northumbria	867
871	King Alfred defeats the Vikings but allows them to settle in Eastern England	871
886	The North subjected to the Danelaw, the rules of the Vikings	886
889	The Anglo Saxon Chronicle starts	889
~900		~900	Development of polyphony
926	Eastern England (Danelaw) conquered by the Saxons	926
1000		1000	Stephen I Becomes King of Hungary
1016	King Canute of Denmark captures the English Crown	1016
1042	Edward the Confessor becomes King	1042
1055	Westminster Abbey completed	1055

	Britain		Abroad
1066	The Battle of Stamford Bridge: Saxon victory over invading Vikings	1066
1066	The Battle of Hastings: The invading Normans defeat the Saxons William of Normandy (Conqueror) defeats Harold and becomes King of England - Norman Conquest (4 years)	1066
1070	Work starts on Canterbury Cathedral	1070
1078	Work starts on The Tower of London	1078
1080 - 1100	Great monastery and cathedral building begins	1080 - 1100
1086	The Domesday Book is compiled, a complete inventory of Britain	1086
1154	Henry II Establishes Plantagenet Rule in England; Work starts on York Minster	1154
1167	Oxford University Founded	1167
1170	Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket is murdered by the knights of Henry II	1170
1170	Population of London exceeds 30,000 for the first time	1170
1174	Work starts on Wells Cathedral	1174
1196 - 1405		1196 - 1405	Mongol Empire in Asia and Europe
1208		1208	St Francis of Assisi Founds Franciscan Order
1209	Cambridge University Founded	1209
1215	Civil War	1215
1215	The Magna Carta is signed by King John	1215
1220	Work starts on Salisbury Cathedral	1220
1225		1225	Notre Dame, Paris built
1245	Westminster Abbey built	1245
1257		1257	Sorbonne founded
1273		1273	Rudolf I Becomes First Habsburg Emperor
1275		1275	Marco Polo Reaches Court of Kublai Khan
1282 - 1283	King Edward conquers Wales. Llewellyn ab Gruffydd, the country's last Welsh Prince is killed	1282 - 1283
1296	King Edward invades Scotland and takes the Stone of Destiny from Scone to Westminster (returned in 1996)	1296
1297	The Battle of Stirling Bridge The Scots under William Wallace defeat the English	1297
1298	The Battle of Falkirk. King Edward defeats Wallace.	1298
130? - 1922		130? - 1922	The Ottoman Empire was founded by Osman
1306	Robert Bruce crowned King of the Scots	1306
1314	Scots led by Robert the Bruce defeat the English at the battle of Bannockburn	1314
1321		1321	Dante: The Divine Comedy
1321 - 1322	Civil War	1321 - 1322
1337	King Edward III claims the Throne of France	1337
1337 - 1453	Hundred Years' War with France	1337 - 1453
1348 - 1349	The Black Death (bubonic plague) arrived in England and killed nearly half of the population	1348 - 1349
1387	Geoffrey Chaucer starts writing the Canterbury Tales	1387
1402	Owen Glendower leads a successful revolt against Henry IV in Wales, proclaims himself Prince of Wales, and establishes a Welsh parliament. Henry V gradually reconqueres Wales between 1405 and 1413.	1402
1415	English defeat the French at the battle of Agincourt	1415
1444		1444	Portugal Begins Modern African Slave Trade
1453	The Hundred Years War against France ends	1453
1455	Civil War: The War of the Roses starts	1455
1458		1458	Matthias Corvinus Becomes King of Hungary
1475 - 1481		1475 - 1481	The Sistine Chapel at the Vatican was built

	Britain		Abroad
1485	The War of the Roses ends at the Battle of Bosworth. Henry Vll crowned king.	1485
1492		1492	Columbus discovers America
1497	John Cabot sails from Bristol aboard the 'Matthew' and discovers North America	1497
1498		1498	Vasco da Gama reaches India
1509 - 1547	Henry Vlll is king of England (later of Wales and Ireland)	1509 - 1547
1513	English defeat the Scots at the Battle of Flodden	1513
1517		1517	Martin Luther nails his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of the All Saints Church in Wittenberg
1520 - 1566		1520 - 1566	Suleiman the Magnificent Becomes Ruler of Ottoman Empire (Mohács, 1526)
1521		1521	Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigates the Globe
1528		1528	Chocolate Drink Introduced into Europe
1534	Henry VIII forms the 'Church of England'. Henry is confirmed as 'Supreme Head of the Church of England 'following a parliamentary Act of Supremacy	1534
1536	Act of Union joins England and Wales	1536
1536	Coverdale Publishes First Complete English Translation of the Bible ( 1541 New Testament in print)	1536
1536 - 1539	Destruction or closure of 560 monasteries and religious houses	1536 - 1539
1542	Mary, Queen of Scots lays claim to the English throne	1542
1543		1543	Copernicus proposes the heliocentric solar system model
1545		1545	Cardano sets out the solution to cubic equations
1547		1547	Ivan the Terrible Becomes Russian Tsar
1550s		1550s	Potato Introduced to Europe; Atlantic slave trade begins
1556		1556	Tobacco Introduced to Europe
1560	The Scottish parliament adopts the Knox's Confession of Faith as the authorized creed. It becomes a symbol of Scottish nationalism and identity.	1560
1558	Elizabeth I begins her 45 year reign	1558
1570	Sir Francis Drake sets sail for his first voyage to the West Indies	1570
1571		1571	Battle of Lepanto
1582		1582	The Gregorian calendar introduced
1587	Queen Elizabeth I executes Mary, Queen of Scots	1587
1588	The English (and the weather) defeat the Spanish Armada	1588
1589	Christopher Marlowe: Dr Faustus	1589
1591	First performance of a play by William Shakespeare	1591
1596	The Triple Alliance signed by England, France, and the United Provinces (Netherlands), forms a confederation against Spain	1596
1597 - 1598	Poor Laws (Elizabeth I) make provisions for the disadvantaged: the elderly, the sick, and destitute children	1597 - 1598
1600	First British involvement in the Indian continent - East India Company formed. Population of Britain just over 4 million	1600
1600		1600	Giordano Bruno executed at the stake because his teachings (combines pantheism and mystical Neoplatonism)

	Britain		Abroad
1603	James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England uniting the two kingdoms (only personal union)	1603
1605	Guy Fawkes is thwarted when he tries to blow up Parliament. (Gunpowder Plot)	1605
1606	The Union Flag adopted as the National Flag	1606
1607	First permanent British settlement at Jamestown; Ulster Plantation: colonization of Irish land by English and Scottish (protestant) settlers	1607
1609		1609	Kepler publishes his three laws of planetary motion; Galileo constructs a telescope for Astronomical Observations
1609		1609	The first Baptist Church is established (in the Netherlands by two English men)
1611	King James Version of the Bible ( 1590 Károli, Hungarian translation)	1611
1612		1612	Cervantes: Don Quixote
1614	John Napier (Scottish mathematician) invents the system of logarithms	1614
1616		1616	The Blue Mosque (in Istanbul) built
1618 - 1648		1618 - 1648	Thirty Years' War
1620	The Pilgrim Fathers set sail for New England from Plymouth, aboard the 'Mayflower';	1620
1620	Francis Bacon: Indications Respecting the Interpretations of Nature ® rise of empiricism	1620
1624 - 1630	War with Spain	1624 - 1630
1626 - 1629	War with France	1626 - 1629
1629	Parliament dissolved by King Charles	1629
1632	William Oughtred (English mathematician) invents slide-rule. It was used by engineers and scientists until the invention of the electronic calculator	1632
1636		1636	Harvard University Founded
1637		1637	Descartes sets out the fundamental principles of his philosophy: “cogito ergo sum”
1642 - 1651	Civil War	1642 - 1651
1643		1643	Louis XI (the Sun King) ascends to the throne of France
1648		1648	Thirty Years’ War ends with the Peace of Westphalia
1649	King Charles executed	1649
1649 - 1650	Cromwell's conquest of Ireland	1649 - 1650
1650 - 1652	Cromwell's conquest of Scotland	1650 - 1652
1650s-		1650s-	Taj Mahal built (over 20 years)
1652	Tea arrives in Britain	1652
1652 - 1674	Wars (maritime battles) between England and the Netherlands resulted from commercial and trading rivalry	1652 - 1674
1653	Cromwell proclaimed Lord Protector	1653
1660	Restoration of the Monarchy under King Charles II	1660
1660	Royal Society Founded	1660
1661	Robert Boyle (Irish-born English chemist): disproves Aristotle’s theory that all matter is made up of four elements: earth, air, fire, and water - rather made of “corpuscles”	1661
1664		1664	Molière: Le Tartuffe
1664 - 1665	The Great Plague breaks out and up to 100,000 people die in London	1664 - 1665
1666	Newton: bases of differentiation and integration	1666
1666	Great Fire of London	1666
1667	John Milton: Paradise Lost	1667
1668	The Triple Alliance of England, Sweden, and the United Provinces (Netherlands), forms a confederation against Louis XIV	1668
1675 - 1710	Christopher Wren: (new) St Paul's Cathedral; the old cathedral burned down in the Great Fire of London	1675 - 1710
1676		1676	Römer measures the velocity of light
1678		1678	Huygens' wave theory of light
1678	John Bunyan: The Pilgrim's Progress	1678
1679		1679	St Basil's Cathedral inMoscow finished
1682		1682	Peter the Great Becomes Russian Tsar
1682		1682	Palace of Versailles built
1687	Sir Isaac Newton: Principia; theory on gravity	1687
1688 - 1689	'Glorious' 'Revolution' & Bill of Rights	1688 - 1689
1688 - 1697		1688 - 1697	Nine Years’ War between Louis XIV of France and the Grand Alliance of 1689: formed by the Holy Roman emperor, the Netherlands, England, Spain, Savoy, Sweden, and some German states
1690	John Locke: Essay Concerning Human Understanding; empiricism	1690
1692	William III (of Orange) massacres the Jacobites at Glencoe	1692
1694	Bank of England established: today the only bank in England that has the right to issue notes	1694
1697		1697	Peace of Ryswick; Louis XIV recognizes William III as king of England
1701	Jethro Tull (English agriculturist) invents the rotary seed drill	1701
1702 - 1713	Queen Anne’s War (2nd of four North American wars) between the British and the French for territorial supremacy	1702 - 1713
1705	Thomas Newcomen (blacksmith) invents the steam engine	1705
1707	Act of Union between Scotland and England. The Scottish parliament was dissolved and England and Scotland became one country (Great Britain)	1707
1710s		1710s	Vivaldi; advancement of the concerto
1713		1713	Peace of Utrecht: end the war of the Spanish succession; end of the French domination of Europe
1714		1714	Leibniz: Monadology
1714		1714	Fahrenheit constructs mercury thermometer

	Britain		Abroad
1714	George of Hanover succeeds Queen Anne to the Throne	1714
1719	Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe	1719
1721	Sir Robert Walpole becomes the first Prime Minister	1721
1726	Jonathan Swift: Gulliver's Travels	1726
1729		1729	Johann Sebastian Bach: St Matthew Passion
1730	John Hadley (English) invents the sextant; navigation on the sea	1730	Thomas Godfrey (American) invents the sextant
1739		1739	John Wesley Founds Methodist Society
1740 - 1748		1740 - 1748	First Carnatic War: between Britain and France in India for controls of the region
1742		1742	George Frideric Handel: Messiah, first performed in Dublin
1742		1742	Celsius (Swedish astronomer) develops centigrade thermometer
1744 - 1748	King George’s War (3rd of four North American wars) between the British and the French	1744 - 1748
1746	Bonnie Prince Charlie is defeated at the Battle of Culloden (Sc)	1746
1748	David Hume: A Treatise on Human Nature; rationalistic, sceptical, and empirical philosophy	1748
1748		1748	Leonhard Euler (Swiss mathematician): Introduction to the Analysis of Infinities
1751 - 1754		1751 - 1754	2nd Carnatic War: between Britain and France in India for controls of the region
1751 - 1766		1751 - 1766	Diderot and d'Alembert: Encyclopédie
1752		1752	Benjamin Franklin's Kite Experiment: investigating the lightning; invents the lightning rod and postulates the “one-fluid” theory of electricity
1754 - 1763		1754 - 1763	The French and Indian War between Britain and France for (today) Canadian and US territories ® Treaty of Paris
1757	First canal in Britain is completed	1757
1763		1763	Treaty of Paris: confirms British colonial dominance, especially in Canada, America, and India
1765		1765	Suzuki Harunobu (Japan) introduces full-colour prints
1768	Royal Academy of Arts Founded	1768
1770		1770	James Cook reaches Australia claims the land for Britain
1770s		1770s	Carl Wilhelm Scheele (Swedish chemist) discovers new chemical elements: Cl, Ba, N, Mo, Mn and W
1774	Joseph Priestley isolates oxygen	1774
1775	James Watt improves the steam engine	1775
1775 - 1823		1775 - 1823	American war of independence; The war essentially ended in October 1781 with the successful siege of Yorktown
1776	America declares independence from Britain (July 4)	1776
1777		1777	Columb's law for electrical attraction and repulsion
1778	Catholic Relief Act: gives some citizen rights to Roman Catholics loyal to the British Crown	1778
1779	First cast-iron bridge spanning the river Severn	1779
1780s	Industrial Revolution Begins	1780s
1780	First horse race (Derby) at Epsom	1780
1781		1781	Kant: Critique of Pure Reason
1783	Steam powered cotton mill invented by Sir Richard Arkwright	1783
1783		1783	Montgolfier brothers: first hot-air balloon flight
1783		1783	The Treaty of Paris: Britain recognizes the independence of 13 of its former colonies as the sovereign United States of America.
1785	Edmund Cartwright invents power loom	1785
1786	Robert Burns: Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect	1786
1787		1787	Mozart: Don Giovanni
1788	First convict ships are sent to Australia (January 26)	1788
1788 - 1789		1788 - 1789	US Constitution
1792 - 1800		1792 - 1800	White House built: official residence of the US president in Washington D.C.
1793 - 1794		1793 - 1794	Reign of terror: phase of the French revolution; 17,000 people executed
1793		1793	Louvre opens as a public museum
1796	Edward Jenner invented a vaccination against small pox	1796
1798	Irish rebellion pulled down resulting union between Britain and Ireland (in 1800)	1798
1798	Collection from William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads	1798
1798	Henry Cavendish calculates the mass of the Earth	1798
1798		1798	Napoleon conquers Egypt
1799		1799	Ranjit Singh founds Sikh kingdom of the Punjab
1799 - 1815		1799 - 1815	Napoleonic Wars
1800	Act of Union with Ireland	1800
1800		1800	Alessandro Volta (Italy) develops forerunner of electric battery
1801	The first census. Population of Britain 8 million. Ireland becomes part of the United Kingdom	1801
1802		1802	Robert Fulton (US): first paddle-wheeled steamboat
1803		1803	Napoleon Bonaparte sells the province of Louisiana to the United States for US$15 million
1804 - 1805		1804 - 1805	Lewis and Clark explore and map territories west of the Mississipi River; they reach the Pacific in November 1805.
1804	Richard Trevithick builds the first steam locomotive	1804
1804		1804	Napoleon Bonaparte becomes French Emperor
1805	Lord Nelson defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar (October)	1805
1805		1805	Battle of Austerlitz (December)
1805		1805	Hanaoka Seishu (Japan) pioneers anaesthetics in surgery
1807	Abolition of Slave Trade	1807
1808		1808	Goethe: Faust
1809		1809	Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (France) first ideas on evolution
1812 - 1815		1812 - 1815	Grimm Brothers: Fairy Tales
1812		1812	Battle of Borodino; The battle is described in Tolstoy’s War and Peace.
1813		1813	Battle of Leipzig (Battle of the Nations)
1815	Duke of Wellington defeats Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo	1815
1815		1815	Monarchy in France restored under Louis XVIII
1817		1817	Hegel: Encyclopedia; dialectic philosophy
1818	Mary Shelley: Frankenstein	1818
1820	Sir Walter Scott: Ivanhoe	1820
1821		1821	Metternich becomes chancellor of Habsburg Empire
1822		1822	Rosetta Stone deciphered
1823		1823	Monroe Doctrine (US): rejects further European colonization in Latin America
1824		1824	Ludwig van Beethoven: 9th Symphony
1825	World's first railway opens between Stockton and Darlington	1825
1829	Robert Peel set up the Metropolitan Police force	1829
1829	Catholic Emancipation Act: grants Roman Catholics full civil and political liberties	1829
1829		1829	Louis Braille's (France) system enables blinds to read
1829		1829	Barthélemy Thimonnier (France) develops first practical sewing machine
1829	George Stephenson builds Rocket locomotive	1829
1830		1830	Stendhal: The Scarlet and the Black
1831	Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction	1831
1831		1831	Aleksander Pushkin: Eugene Onegin
1831		1831	Hall McCormick (US): first reaping machine
1834	The Poor Law set up workhouses, where people without homes or jobs could live in return for doing unpaid work.	1834
1834 - 1835		1834 - 1835	Honoré de Balzac: Le Père Goriot
1836 - 1886		1836 - 1886	Ramakrishna: pioneer of the Hindu revival in the 19th century; idea of all religions leading to the same goal (self-contradictory...!)

	Britain		Abroad
1902	Britain defeats Dutch settlers in the Boer War in South Africa	1902
1902	The first old age pension	1902
1902	Sinn Féin Founded (Ir)	1902
1903 - 1914	Suffragette Movement: Women’s political movement, which campaigns for the right of women to have the vote.	1903 - 1914
1903		1903	First Tour de France
1903		1903	Wright brothers (US): First powered aeroplane flight
1905		1905	Einstein: Special Relativity
1905		1905	Russian Revolution: revolt against the autocratic rule of the Tsar
1907		1907	Triple Entente (UK, France, Russia)
1909		1909	Ford's Model T
1909		1909	Robert Millikan (US) Determines Charge of Electron (Nobel Prize: 1923)
1909		1909	Robert Peary (US) Reaches North Pole
1910		1910	Zeppelin develops first airship
1911		1911	First studio founded in Hollywood
1912		1912	Galactic red shift first observed (US): evidence of the expansion of the universe
1912	Bertrand Russell: The Problems of Philosophy - realism, rejects idealism, which at the time dominated philosophical thinking	1912
1912		1912	Sinking of the Titanic
1913		1913	Gideon Sundback (Sweden) patents zip fastener
1914		1914	Peyton Rous (US) develops method of preserving blood
1914		1914	Panama Canal Opens
1914 - 1918	First World War Compulsory military service and food rationing introduced	1914 - 1918
1915		1915	Franz Kafka: The Metamorphosis
1916 (Apr)	Easter Rising: uprising of armed Irish nationalists in Dublin, aimed against the rule of Britain in Ireland	1916 (Apr)
1917 (Apr)		1917 (Apr)	US Enters World War I
1917 (Nov)		1917 (Nov)	Formation of the USSR
1918	British women get the vote	1918
1919		1919	First aeroplane crossing of the Atlantic (Glenn Curtiss (US) with stops) First non-stop transatlantic flight (John Alcock and Arthur Brown (UK))
1919	Rutherford transmutes Nitrogen into Oxygen: first artificial nuclear reaction	1919
1919		1919	Treaty of Versailles: concludes World War I and sets out territorial changes in Europe
1920		1920	Treaty of Trianon
1920		1920	US women get the vote
1920		1920	First radio station begins broadcasting (US)
1920	Republic of Ireland gains independence from Britain	1920
1921		1921	Carl Jung: Psychological Types
1922		1922	Sir Frederick Banting and Charles Best discover insulin (Canada)
1922		1922	James Joyce: Ulysses
1922		1922	Discovery of tomb of Tutankhamen
1922		1922	Mussolini takes power in Italy
1923		1923	Traffic lights invented (US)
1924		1924	Louis de Broglie (France) proposes wave behaviour of particles
1926	John Logie Baird (Sc) demonstrates the Television in public	1926
1927		1927	Charles Lindbergh (US) makes first solo non-stop Atlantic crossing (flight)
1927		1927	Werner Heisenberg discovers uncertainty principle (quantum mechanics)
1927		1927	Martin Heidegger: Being and Time
1928	Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin	1928
1928		1928	Edwin Hubble's (US) Theory of the Expansion of the Universe
1928		1928	Joseph Stalint takes control of Soviet Union
1929		1929	Wall Street Crash: beginning of the Great Depression
1930		1930	Pluto discovered
1930		1930	First football World Cup (in Uruguay): 13 teams; in the final: Uruguay vs Argentina: 4-2
1931	British Commonwealth of nations formed	1931
1931		1931	Empire State Building: at the time of completion, was the tallest building in the world (at 381 m; 102 storeys )
1931		1931	Nylon developed (US)
1931	Sir Frank Whittle invents the Jet Engine	1931
1932	James Chadwick discovers the Neutron	1932
1932		1932	Aldous Huxley: Brave New World
1933 - 1938		1933 - 1938	F. D. Roosevelt's New Deal
1933		1933	Adolf Hitler becomes German chancellor
1933		1933	Ernst Ruska (Germany): First electron microscope
1935	Robert Watson-Watt develops radar	1935
1936		1936	First successful helicopter (Germany)
1936		1936	Jesse Owens (black American) wins four gold medals at Berlin Olympics where Hitler intended to demonstrate German superiority
1936	Chaplin's Modern Times	1936
1937		1937	Disney's Snow White
1937	Sir George Thomson demonstrates the wave behaviour of electrons	1937
1938		1938	György Bíró invents ball-point pen
1939		1939	Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann (Germany) discover nuclear fission
1939		1939	Francisco Franco takes power in Spain
1939 - 1945	The Second World War	1939 - 1945
1940	Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister	1940
1940		1940	Ernest Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls
1941 (Sept) - 1944 (Jan)		1941 (Sept) - 1944 (Jan)	Siege of Leningrad: over 1.25 million people died
1941 - 1945		1941 - 1945	Manhattan Project (7 Hungarian participants) to develop A-bomb
1942		1942	First nuclear fission chain reaction (Enrico Fermi)
1942 (Aug) - 1943 (Jan)		1942 (Aug) - 1943 (Jan)	The Battle of Stalingrad: turning point in World War II
1943 - 1946		1943 - 1946	ENIAC Project: world’s first fully electronic digital computer (US)
1944 June 6		1944 June 6	D-Day (Normandy landing)
1945		1945	UN (51 nations)
1945 Aug 6 & 9		1945 Aug 6 & 9	First (and last so far) A-bombs thrown on civil targets
1947		1947	Dénes Gábor invents holography (Nobel Prize for Physics in 1972)
1947		1947	Willard Frank Libby: Carbon-14 dating method (US)
1947		1947	Discovery of the Dead Sea scroll
1948		1948	State of Israel founded
1948		1948	Bell Laboratories (US): transistor developed; revolution in electronics
1948		1948	Universal declaration of Human Rights
1949		1949	People's Republic of China founded, Mao Zedong became head of state
1949		1949	Irish Republic declared
1949	George Orwell: 1984	1949
1951	Festival of Britain	1951
1952		1952	Mother Teresa opens home for destitute in Calcutta
1952		1952	Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot
1952		1952	Ede Teller: H-bomb
1952	Elizabeth II becomes Queen	1952
1952	First Brisitsh nuclear reactor & nuclear bomb	1952
1953	Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II	1953
1953		1953	England vs Hungary: 3-6
1953		1953	Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay conquer Mount Everest
1953	Francis Crick (UK) and James Dewey Watson (US) describe structure of DNA (Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1962)	1953
1954		1954	First kidney transplant (US)
1955		1955	Bill Haley: Rock around the clock
1955	Ian Donald invents ultrasound scanner (safer than X-rays)	1955
1955		1955	Soviet Union: first H-bomb (surprising US)
1956		1956	Suez Crisis: UK, France and Israel against Egypt (US forces the UK to hault operations)
1956		1956	Hungarian Revolution against Soviet Opression
1957		1957	Sputnik I: USSR overtakes US in the 'Space Race'
1957		1957	FORTRAN (first high-level computer language) developed (US)
1959		1959	Second-Generation Computers: completely transistorized (smaller & faster machines )
1959		1959	Fidel Castro takes power in Cuba
1959	Christopher Cockerell invents the hovercraft	1959
1959		1959	Gordon Gould develops first laser (US)
1960		1960	Contraceptive pill introduced: sexual 'revolution' begins
1960		1960	Jacques Piccard descends to the deepest ocean floor (-10,912 m)
1961		1961	Berlin Wall: 47 km long and 4 m high, completely surrounding West Berlin
1961		1961	Yuri Gagarin (USSR) in Space
1961		1961	first US troops in Vietnam
1962		1962	Thomas Kuhn: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
1963		1963	Valentina Tereshkova the first woman in space
1963 (Aug)		1963 (Aug)	Martin Luther King: Civil rights march on Washington, D. C
1963 (Nov)		1963 (Nov)	President Kennedy assassinated
1965		1965	Big Bang theory of the Universe developed
1965		1965	First commercial satellite
1967	Abortion legalized in Britain	1967
1967		1967	European Community (12 states) formed to promote economic integration and political co-operation between member states
1967		1967	First human heart transplant (South Africa)
1968 (Apr)		1968 (Apr)	Martin Luther King assassinated
1969		1969	First manned Moon Landing (Apollo 11)
1970		1970	García Márquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982)
1970		1970	Floppy Disk introduced (IBM)
1971		1971	First microprocessor: Intel 4004
1972 Jan 30	Bloody Sunday (Londonderry, NI): 13 people killed	1972 Jan 30
1972		1972	Mark Spitz, a 22-year-old American swimmer, wins an unprecedented seven gold medals at the Munich Olympics
1973		1973	US legalizes abortion (Joe v Wade)
1973	Britain joins the European Community	1973	Ireland and Denmark join the EC
1975		1975	First PC (US)
1979		1979	Saddam Hussein becomes president of Iraq
1979	Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain's first woman prime minister	1979
1980 - 1988		1980 - 1988	Iran-Iraq war: 1 million people died
1981		1981	Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose
1982		1982	The first reusable spacecraft: Columbia (Space Shuttle)
1982	Falklands War (Br defeats Argentinian forces)	1982
1983		1983	Pioneer 10 (launched in 1972) leaves the solar system
1986		1986	Chernobyl Disaster
1989		1989	Berlin Wall torn down
1990		1990	First democratic elections in Hungary
1990		1990	German reunification
1990		1990	Hubble Space Telescope
1991	Gulf War	1991
1991	Sir Tim Berners Lee invents the World Wide Web	1991
1991 - 1992		1991 - 1992	Breakup of Yugoslavia
1993 Febr 07		1993 Febr 07	Maastricht Treaty ® EU
1994	Channel Tunnel links Britain back to the European continent	1994
1997		1997	Kyoto Protocol: reduce emission of the industrial gases responsible for global warming
1997		1997	Hong Kong returned to China
1998	Good Friday Agreement (Belfast): Protestant-Catholic power-sharing self-government in Northern Ireland	1998
1999		1999	Euro currency introduced (11 of the 15 EU member states)
1999	Welsh National Assembly and Scottish parliament open	1999
1999	Manchester United wins Treble: winning the Premiership, the FA Cup and the European Champions League in one season	1999
2001		2001	911 - WTC
2003	Iraqi War	2003

	Britain		Abroad
1837	Queen Victoria becomes Queen at the age of 18	1837
1840	The first postage stamps (Penny Post) came into use	1840
1840		1840	Ignaz Semmelweis introduces antiseptic prophylaxis: incidence of childbed fever reduced
1840		1840	Andersen (Denmark): Fairy Tales
1841		1841	Amistad Case
1842	Mines Act ended child labour	1842
1844		1844	Samuel Morse (US) sends first public telegram
1845 - 1849	Ireland suffered the Great Potato Famine when entire crops of potao, the staple Irish food, were ruined. About 1 million people died. About a million Irish emigrated to Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia.	1845 - 1849
1845		1845	Edgar Allan Poe (US): The Raven
1846		1846	William Morton (US) demonstrates use of ether as anaesthetic
1846 - 1848		1846 - 1848	Mexican-American War: US gains territories of today Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah
1846		1846	Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsodies
1846		1846	Neptune Discovered by Johann Galle (Germany)
1847	Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre	1847
1848		1848	Californian Gold Rush
1848		1848	Marx and Engels: Communist Manifesto
1848		1848	Hungarian revolution
1849 - 1950	Charles Dickens: David Copperfield	1849 - 1950
1850s	The first post boxes were built	1850s
1851	The Great Exhibition Census showed just over half of Britain's population (of 20 million) lived in towns	1851
1851		1851	Demonstration of Foucault's (France) Pendulum: prove the rotation of the Earth on its axis
1852		1852	Napoleon III becomes Emperor of France
1852		1852	Henri Giffard (France) invents first passenger-carrying airship
1853 - 1856	Crimean War	1853 - 1856
1854	A cholera epidemic led to demands for a clean water supply and proper sewage systems in the big cities	1854
1855	David Livingstone Reaches Victoria Falls	1855
1856	Britain defeats Russia in the Crimean War	1856
1857		1857	Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde
1857		1857	First steam-powered passenger lift (US)
1858	Alfred Russel Wallace's Theory of Evolution	1858
1859	Charles Darwin: On the Origin of Species	1859
1860	The first public flushing toilet opens	1860
1860	The first Open Golf Championship (Scotland)	1860
1860	Sir Henry Bessemer: process for making 'cheaper' steel	1860
1861	Death of Prince Albert	1861
1861 - 1865		1861 - 1865	American Civil War
1861		1861	Kingdom of Italy Proclaimed
1862		1862	Victor Hugo: Les Misérables
1862		1862	Ångstrom (Sweden) discovers existence of hydrogen in the Sun