Events - Browse By Place - United Kingdom

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The Act of Union forms Great Britain from England and Scotland
1707
Peace, United Kingdom
Christopher Wren completes St. Paul's Cathedral
1711
Architecture, United Kingdom
James II claims the throne, but Jacobite Rebellion in England & Scotland fails
1715
War, United Kingdom
Premiere of Handel's "Water Music" on the River Thames
1717
Music, United Kingdom
John Kay invents the flying shuttle to revolutionize the production of cotton
1733
Invention, United Kingdom
David Hume publishes Treatise of Human Nature in 1734-37.
1737
Philosophy, United Kingdom
Robert Walpole, the first prime minister, resigns
1742
Government, United Kingdom
Great Britain adopts the Gregorian calendar
1752
Culture, United Kingdom
Samuel Johnson publishes "Dictionary of English Language"
1755
Education, United Kingdom
Adam Smith publishes The Theory of Moral Sentiments
1759
Philosophy, United Kingdom
Lord Mansfield frees a slave--the beginning of the emancipation movement
1772
Human Rights, United Kingdom
John Harrison receives reward for invention of marine chronometer
1773
Transportation, United Kingdom
Edward Gibbon publishes "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
1776
Education, United Kingdom
Adam Smith publishes "The Wealth of Nations," the first modern study of economics
1776
Philosophy, United Kingdom
Wedgwood builds successful earthenware mass-production industry
1779
Trade, United Kingdom
Protestant mobs in Britain cry "No Popery" and burn Catholic churches
1780
Religion, United Kingdom
First Iron Bridge opens in Shropshire, England
1781
Transportation, United Kingdom
Andrew Meikle invents threshing machine
1786
Invention, United Kingdom
"Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan" by Thomas Gainsborough
1787
Arts, United Kingdom
The Times of London begins--first by reporting scandal and later real news
1788
Culture, United Kingdom
Warren Hasting, the first governor-general of India, is impeached and acquitted
1795
Government, United Kingdom
Edward Jenner, an English doctor, invents the smallpox vaccination
1796
Invention, United Kingdom
William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge publish Lyrical Ballads
1798
Arts, United Kingdom
Thomas Malthus publishes "Essay on Population"
1798
Science, United Kingdom
Progressive income tax introduced in Britain to pay for Napoleonic wars
1799
Trade, United Kingdom
Humphrey Davy predicts nitrous oxide (laughing gas) will be used as anesthetic
1799
Science, United Kingdom
Acts of Union fails to promote harmony between United Kingdom and Ireland
1801
Geography, United Kingdom
Richard Trevithick produces the first locomotive to carry passengers
1804
Transportation, United Kingdom
Britain abolishes slave trading in the empire, but slavery remains legal
1807
Human Rights, United Kingdom
Beginning in 1811, Jane Austen publishes six major novels
1811
Arts, United Kingdom
Britain has complete victory in Napoleonic Wars
1815
War, United Kingdom
"Wivenhoe Park, Essex" by John Constable
1816
Arts, United Kingdom
Peterloo Massacre climaxes 4 years of high unemployment & low wages in England
1819
Government, United Kingdom
Michael Faraday invents the electric motor
1822
Invention, United Kingdom
British leaders form Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1824
Culture, United Kingdom
Stephenson establishes the first successful railway: Stockton to Darlington
1825
Transportation, United Kingdom
First professional police force created by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel
1829
Government, United Kingdom
Stephenson's Rocket wins race of locomotives
1829
Transportation, United Kingdom
Faraday experiments with electromagnetism and invents the first dynamo
1831
Invention, United Kingdom
British Parliament passes the Reform Act of 1832
1832
Government, United Kingdom
Slavery Abolition Act forbids slavery In the British Empire
1833
Human Rights, United Kingdom
Factory Act reduces the number of hours that children are allowed to work
1833
Human Rights, United Kingdom
Palace of Westminster burns down in 1834, but is rebuilt in 1840-1860
1834
Architecture, United Kingdom
Dickens begins publishing the Pickwick Papers
1836
Arts, United Kingdom
18-year old Victoria accedes to throne after death of King William IV, her uncle
1837
Government, United Kingdom
Alfred, Lord Tennyson publishes "Locksley Hall"
1837
Arts, United Kingdom
The British laboring poor in the People's Charter movement petitions for reform
1838
Government, United Kingdom
Chartism calls for greater representation in democratic government
1838
Government, United Kingdom
"The Fighting Temeraire" by J.M.W. Turner
1839
Arts, United Kingdom
British mail service expands as adhesive postage stamp used for the first time
1840
Invention, United Kingdom
Editors of Punch provides satirical drawings--the first cartoon
1843
Culture, United Kingdom
British Corn Laws abolished by Parliament
1846
Government, United Kingdom
Marx and Engels publish The Communist Manifesto
1848
Government, United Kingdom
"The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations"--1st World's Fair
1851
Invention, United Kingdom
Florence Nightingale modernizes nursing care for British soldiers in the Crimea
1854
Health, United Kingdom
John Snow, epidemiologist, identifies contaminated water as source of cholera
1854
Health, United Kingdom
Charles Darwin causes an intellectual storm publishing The Origin of Species
1859
Science, United Kingdom
Typhoid fever kills Prince Albert--Queen Victoria begins 40 years of mourning
1861
Government, United Kingdom
George Eliot publishes "Silas Marner"
1861
Arts, United Kingdom
First underground passenger railway serves London
1863
Transportation, United Kingdom
First International founded in London--25 elected members including Karl Marx
1864
Government, United Kingdom
First successful trans-Atlantic submarine telegraph cable
1865
Invention, United Kingdom
"Whistler's Mother" by James McNeill Whistler
1871
Arts, United Kingdom
Thomas Alva Edison invents incandescent light bulb
1878
Invention, United Kingdom
"The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit" by John Singer Sargent
1882
Arts, United Kingdom
Britain begins domination of Egypt after bombing and occupying Alexandria
1882
War, United Kingdom
First automatic machine gun built by Hiram Maxim
1884
Invention, United Kingdom
Queen Victoria celebrates Diamond Jubilee
1897
Government, United Kingdom
Marconi's radio transmission begins a new age of communications
1901
Telecom, United Kingdom
Queen Victoria dies at the age of eighty-one--end of the Victorian era
1901
Government, United Kingdom
Britain launches HMS Dreadnought to establish its naval supremacy
1906
War, United Kingdom
Lloyd George asks Parliament to pass "People's Budget"
1909
Government, United Kingdom
Suffragette Emily Davidson sacrifices life for cause at Derby horse race
1913
Human Rights, United Kingdom
Harry Brearley invents stainless steel
1913
Invention, United Kingdom
Balfour Declaration--Britain supports home (not explicitly a state) for Jews
1917
Government, United Kingdom
Eddington photos of solar eclipse confirm Einstein's Theory of General Relativity
1919
Science, United Kingdom
"The Second Coming" composed by Irish poet W. B. Yeats
1919
Arts, United Kingdom
Ludwig Wittgenstein publishes Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus in 1921
1921
Philosophy, United Kingdom
T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land is published
1922
Arts, United Kingdom
James Joyce's Ulysses published
1922
Arts, United Kingdom
King George V gives first of annual king's speeches broadcast on radio
1924
Telecom, United Kingdom
John Logie Baird gives first demonstration of television
1926
Telecom, United Kingdom
In May 3-12, first & last British general strike--2.5 million workers stop working
1926
Trade, United Kingdom
Sir Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin as the first antibiotic
1928
Health, United Kingdom
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World published
1932
Arts, United Kingdom
Robert Watson-Watt invents radar to detect aircraft
1935
Telecom, United Kingdom
King Edward VIII abdicates to marry Mrs. Simpson
1936
Culture, United Kingdom
In May, Churchill becomes Prime Minister of National Government
1940
Government, United Kingdom
In December, London suffers from heaviest bombing of the war
1940
War, United Kingdom
In May, enigma machine captured from sinking submarine helps Allies win war
1941
War, United Kingdom
In July, Churchill was voted out as Prime Minister in Labour landslide
1945
Government, United Kingdom
A ship with 492 Jamaican immigrants arrives in England
1948
Culture, United Kingdom
National Health Service is born to provide free health care in Britain
1948
Health, United Kingdom
First passenger jet
1952
Transportation, United Kingdom
London smog reaches critical level
1952
Disaster, United Kingdom
Roger Bannister is first person to run mile in less than 4 minutes
1954
Health, United Kingdom
Jury decides that Lady Chatterley's Lover is not obscene & no crime in printing it
1960
Arts, United Kingdom
Arnold J. Toynbee completes "A Study of History"
1961
Philosophy, United Kingdom
The Beatles perform live on The Ed Sullivan Show in the United States
1964
Music, United Kingdom
British shootings (Bloody Sunday) in Northern Ireland provoke international outcry
1972
War, United Kingdom
Margaret Thatcher is first woman elected Prime Minister of United Kingdom
1979
Government, United Kingdom
British miners end 51 week strike and admit defeat
1985
Human Rights, United Kingdom
Tim Berners-Lee invents World Wide Web
1990
Invention, United Kingdom
"Dolly" the sheep cloned
1997
Science, United Kingdom
Suicide bombers (Islamic fundamentalists) kill 56 & injure more than 700 in London
2005
War, United Kingdom
"The Last Kingdom" aired on TV as a miniseries
2015
Movies, United Kingdom