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Date |
Event(s) |
| 1 | 1840 | - 10 Jan 1840—10 Jan 1840: Uniform Penny Postage introduced nationally
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| 2 | 1841 | - 6 Jun 1841—6 Jun 1841: June 6: First full census in Britain in which all names were recorded (Population 18.5M)
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| 3 | 1843 | - 1843—1843: First Christmas card in England
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| 4 | 1851 | - 1 May 1851—1 May 1851: Great exhibition of the works of industry of all nations ('Crystal Palace' exhibition) opened in Hyde Park
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| 5 | 1853 | - 1853—1853: Vaccination against smallpox made compulsory in Britain
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| 6 | 1854 | - 1854—1854: Cigarettes introduced into Britain
- 25 Oct 1854—25 Oct 1854: Battle of Balaklava in Crimea (charge of the Light Brigade)
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| 7 | 1859 | - 24 Nov 1859—24 Nov 1859: Charles Darwin publishes 'The Origin of Species'
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| 8 | 1862 | - 20 Apr 1862—20 Apr 1862: First pasteurisation test completed by Louis Pasteur and Claude Bernard
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| 9 | 1863 | - 10 Jan 1863—10 Jan 1863: First section of the London Underground Railway opens
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| 10 | 1865 | - 14 Apr 1865—14 Apr 1865: End of American Civil War - slavery abolished in USA
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| 11 | 1868 | - 1868—1868: Last convicts landed in Australia (Western Australia)
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| 12 | 1869 | - 1869—1869: Ball bearings, celluloid, margarine, and washing machines, all invented
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| 13 | 1870 | - 1870—1870: Water closets come into wide use
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| 14 | 1872 | - 1872—1872: Penalties introduced for failing to register births, marriages & deaths (Eng & Wales)
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| 15 | 1874 | - 5 Apr 1874—5 Apr 1874: Birkenhead Park opened, said to be the first civic public park in the world - features of it later copied in Central Park, New York
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| 16 | 1876 | - 14 Feb 1876—14 Feb 1876: Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray each file a patent for the telephone - Bell awarded the rights
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| 17 | 1878 | - 1878—1878: Edison & Swan invent electric lamp
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| 18 | 1880 | - 1880—1880: Education Act: schooling compulsory for 5-10 year olds
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| 19 | 1883 | - 27 Aug 1883—27 Aug 1883: Eruption of Krakatoa near Java - 30,000 killed by tidal wave
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| 20 | 1884 | - 13 Oct 1884—13 Oct 1884: Greenwich made prime meridian of the world
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| 21 | 1885 | - Mar 1885—Mar 1885: First UK cremation in modern times took place at Woking
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| 22 | 1887 | - 1887—1887: Daimler produces a four-wheeled motor car
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| 23 | 1888 | - 20 Mar 1888—20 Mar 1888: Football League formed
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| 24 | 1889 | - 3 Jun 1889—3 Jun 1889: Canadian Pacific Railway completed from coast to coast
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| 25 | 1891 | - 1891—1891: Primary education made free and compulsory
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| 26 | 1893 | - 1893—1893: Zip fastener invented
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| 27 | 1895 | - Nov 1895—Nov 1895: X-rays discovered
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| 28 | 1897 | - 1897—1897: Thomas Edison patents the Kinetoscope, the first movie projector
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| 29 | 1900 | - 1900—1900: School leaving age in Britain raised to 14 years
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| 30 | 1901 | - 1901—1901: Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner
- 12 Dec 1901—12 Dec 1901: First successful radio transmission across the Atlantic, by Marconi - Morse
code from Cornwall to Newfoundland
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| 31 | 1902 | - 1902—1902: Marie Curie discovers radioactivity
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| 32 | 1906 | - 1906—1906: Introduction of free school meals for poor children
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| 33 | 1907 | - 1907—1907: First airship flies over London
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| 34 | 1908 | - 1 Jul 1908—1 Jul 1908: SOS became effective as an international signal of distress
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| 35 | 1909 | - 25 Jul 1909—25 Jul 1909: Bleriot flies across the Channel (36 minutes, Calais to Dover)
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| 36 | 1912 | - 14 Apr 1912—14 Apr 1912: The 'unsinkable' Titanic sinks on maiden voyage - loss of 1,513 lives
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| 37 | 1914 | - 4 Aug 1914—4 Aug 1914: Britain declares war on Germany, citing Belgian neutrality as reason
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| 38 | 1917 | - 7 Nov 1917—7 Nov 1917: 'October' Revolution in Russia - Bolsheviks overthrow provisional government;
Lenin becomes Chief Commissar
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| 39 | 1918 | - 1918—1918: Vote for women over 30, men over 21 (except peers, lunatics and felons)
- 8 Mar 1918—8 Mar 1918: Start of world-wide 'flu pandemic
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| 40 | 1923 | - 16 Feb 1923—16 Feb 1923: Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Tutankhamun
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| 41 | 1926 | - 1926—1926: Adoption of children is legalised in Britain
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| 42 | 1927 | - 1927—1927: Release of the first 'talkie' film (The Jazz Singer)
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| 43 | 1928 | - 1928—1928: Women over 21 get vote in Britain - same qualification for both sexes
- 15 Sep 1928—15 Sep 1928: Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers penicillin (results published 1929)
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| 44 | 1929 | - 1929—1929: Minimum age for a marriage in Britain (which had been 14 for a boy and 12 for a girl)
now 16 for both sexes, with parental consent (or a licence) needed for anyone under 21
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| 45 | 1934 | - 1934—1934: Hitler becomes Fuehrer of Germany
- 18 Jul 1934—18 Jul 1934: King George V opens Mersey Tunnel
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| 46 | 1936 | - 5 May 1936—5 May 1936: First flight of a Spitfire
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| 47 | 1938 | - 30 Oct 1938—30 Oct 1938: Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of HG Wells 'The War of the Worlds', causing panic in the USA
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| 48 | 1939 | - 3 Sep 1939—3 Sep 1939: Britain and France declare war on Germany
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| 49 | 1940 | - 15 Sep 1940—15 Sep 1940: Battle of Britain: massive waves of German air attacks decisively repulsed by the
RAF - Hitler postpones invasion of Britain
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| 50 | 1941 | - 1941—1941: First use of antibiotics
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| 51 | 1942 | - 6 Sep 1942—6 Sep 1942: Germans defeated at Stalingrad
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| 52 | 1944 | - 6 Jun 1944—6 Jun 1944: D-Day invasion of Normandy
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| 53 | 1945 | - 8 May 1945—8 May 1945: VE Day (Victory in Europe). Atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
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| 54 | 1947 | - 1 Apr 1947—1 Apr 1947: School leaving age raised to 15 in Britain
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| 55 | 1948 | - 5 Jul 1948—5 Jul 1948: National Health Service (NHS) begins in Britain
|
| 56 | 1952 | - 2 May 1952—2 May 1952: First commercial jet airliner service launched, by BOACComet between London
and Johannesburg
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| 57 | 1953 | - 25 Apr 1953—25 Apr 1953: Francis Crick and James D Watson publish the double helix structure of DNA
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| 58 | 1954 | - 3 Jul 1954—3 Jul 1954: Food rationing officially ends in Britain
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| 59 | 1955 | - 22 Sep 1955—22 Sep 1955: Commercial TV starts in Britain
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| 60 | 1957 | - 25 May 1957—25 May 1957: Treaty of Rome to create European Economic Community (EEC) of six
countries: France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg - became
operational Jan 1958
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| 61 | 1959 | - 1 Nov 1959—1 Nov 1959: First section of M1 motorway opened
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| 62 | 1962 | - 24 Oct 1962—24 Oct 1962: Cuba missile crisis - brink of nuclear war
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| 63 | 1966 | - 30 Jul 1966—30 Jul 1966: World Cup won by England at Wembley (4-2 in extra time v West Germany)
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| 64 | 1968 | - 29 May 1968—29 May 1968: Manchester United first English club to win the European Cup
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| 65 | 1969 | - 17 Apr 1969—17 Apr 1969: Voting age lowered from 21 to 18
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| 66 | 1971 | - 15 Feb 1971—15 Feb 1971: Decimalisation of coinage in UK and Republic of Ireland
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| 67 | 1973 | - 1 Jan 1973—1 Jan 1973: Britain enters EEC Common Market (with Ireland and Denmark)
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| 68 | 1978 | - 25 Jul 1978—25 Jul 1978: World's first 'test tube' baby, Louise Browne born in Oldham
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| 69 | 1979 | - 4 May 1979—4 May 1979: Margaret Thatcher becomes first woman UK Prime Minister
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| 70 | 1980 | - 8 Dec 1980—8 Dec 1980: John Lennon assassinated in New York
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| 71 | 1981 | - 29 Jul 1981—29 Jul 1981: Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer (divorced 28 Aug 1996)
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| 72 | 1982 | - 28 May 1982—28 May 1982: First land battle in Falklands (Goose Green)
|
| 73 | 1986 | - 26 Apr 1986—26 Apr 1986: Chernobyl nuclear accident - radiation reached Britain on 2 Ma
|
| 74 | 1988 | - 21 Dec 1988—21 Dec 1988: Lockerbie disaster - Pan Am flight 103 explodes over Scotland
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| 75 | 1989 | - 9 Nov 1989—9 Nov 1989: Berlin Wall torn down
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| 76 | 1990 | - 25 Apr 1990—25 Apr 1990: Hubble space telescope launched
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| 77 | 1991 | - 1991—1991: The 'Internet' comes into existence
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| 78 | 1993 | - Jul 1993—Jul 1993: Ratification of Maastricht Treaty, established the European Union (EU)
|
| 79 | 1994 | - 6 May 1994—6 May 1994: Channel Tunnel open to traffic
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| 80 | 1996 | - 5 Jul 1996—5 Jul 1996: Scientists in Scotland clone a sheep (Dolly)
|
| 81 | 1997 | - 11 May 1997—11 May 1997: First time a computer beats a master at chess (IBM's Deep Blue v Garry
Kasparov)
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| 82 | 1998 | - 27 Sep 1998—27 Sep 1998: 'Google' search engine founded
|
| 83 | 1999 | - 1 Jan 1999—1 Jan 1999: European Monetary Union begins - UK opts out - by the end of the year the
Euro has approximately the same value as the US Dollar
|
| 84 | 2002 | - 1 Jan 2002—1 Jan 2002: Twelve major countries in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Holland, Irish Republic,
Italy, Luxembourg, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Spain, Portugal) and their
dependents start using the Euro instead of their old national currencies; the UK stays
out - the Euro worth 62?p at this time
|
| 85 | 2004 | - 1 May 2004—1 May 2004: Enlargement of the European Union to include 25 members by the entry of 10
new states: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary,
Slovenia, Malta, Cyprus
|
| 86 | 2007 | - 1 Jul 2007—1 Jul 2007: Prohibition of smoking in enclosed public places in England (thus completing
cover of the entire UK)
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